Sometimes I am completely oblivious. Take this salad for instance, a Romaine Salad with Anchovy Dressing and Parmesan. Sounds simple enough. And tasty. But as soon as I tasted the dressing I realized that it was essentially homemade caesar dressing - only a little more acidic and a lot less creamy than your standard caesar dressing. I must have been absolutely spaced out not to realize that romaine, plus anchovies, garlic, evoo and Parm-Reg equals caesar salad. There I was thinking about how the salad would be the perfect side to a Mediterranean/Greek shrimp dish and I completely missed it. Oops. So once I started thinking about it in the context of caesar salad, I couldn't help missing croutons. Aren't the croutons always the best part of a caesar salad anyway? Even if this were to be thought of as just a salad and not a caesar salad, I would think it was missing something. It just needed another element, another texture really, to bring it all together. If I were to focus on the salad as a caesar salad, I would have to say that I preferred the Bayona Caesar that we made awhile back with arugula and homemade croutons. That dressing was a bit more complicated and had both Dijon mustard and an egg yolk to make it creamy/thick, a more luxurious-seeming dressing that I greatly appreciate with a caesar salad. If I were to try to shift my mindset to think of the salad as just another salad and not a caesar salad (which, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure that I could) I think I would still prefer another salad. It's not that the salad was bad. It wasn't. It's just that it didn't really stand out for me and I think we have made better.
Recipe after the jump!
INGREDIENTS:
5 flat anchovy fillets, finely chopped
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon white-wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 hearts of romaine (20 to 22 ounces total), torn into pieces
6 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, shaved with a vegetable peeler
5 flat anchovy fillets, finely chopped
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon white-wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 hearts of romaine (20 to 22 ounces total), torn into pieces
6 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, shaved with a vegetable peeler
Whisk together anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Whisk in oil.
Toss lettuce with dressing, then with cheese.
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