"Creamy" Caesar Salad Dressings

In this modern age, people are scared of raw eggs so doing a traditional caesar dressing is hard.

Here are a couple of safe quick home alternatives to the store-bought stuff.

Version 1

• 1/3 cup mayonnaise 
• juice 1/2 a lemon 
• couple of anchovies filets minced (adjust to your preference) 
• couple of cloves of garlic minced (adjust to your love of garlic) 
• 1/2 tsp of capers minced (adjust to your preference) 
• 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard to taste 
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce 
•  Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste 
• grated parmesan  or pecorino cheese to taste 
• grated lemon peel from the 1/2 lemon. 

Whisk everything together in a bowl, taste and toss into your Ceasar fixings.  I personally like about 1 anchovy fillet per person, 1 clove of garlic per person, and a couple of caper berries per person.  Measurements are all approximate as I normally do this to taste.  Sometimes I will also add a splash of a good red wine vinegar with the lemon juice, give it a little more "traditional taste". 

Version 2

• 1/3 cup of EVO 
• 4 tbsp  of red wine vinegar 
• juice of 1/2 a lemon 
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic 
• 3 or 4 anchovy filets 
• 1/2 tsp of capers 
• 1 tblsp of Dijon mustard 
• Dash of Worcestershire sauce 
• 2 hard-boiled egg yolks 
• Salt and pepper to taste 
• grated parmesan or pecorino cheese to taste 

Place everything except the oil into a blender or food processor and give it a blitz.  Drizzle in the oil until you have a mayonnaise consistency.  Adjust flavours per your preferences.  The use of the boiled yolks was inspired from a Lidia Bastianich technique.   If it is too thick, add a little more vinegar or lemon, a little too thin, whiz in more oil. 

I personally use the first version the most at home, but both get the job done well. I like some of the cheese in the dressing, not just tossed into the salad. 

More Later 

 -- G