How to Make the Best Caesar Salad in The World (Don’t Lie About the Anchovies)
I planned a week of dining with my client Doreen Sasso last summer after she flew to New Jersey to visit. Sasso intended to eat at some local Italian eateries, not five-star restaurants but old-world restaurants serving hearty home cooking. She grew up in Bloomfield, a residential community with several Italian neighborhoods, and eating was essential to her heritage. After living in Phoenix for almost 10 years, Sasso was ready to sink her teeth into pizza and eat traditional Caesar salad.
Her favorite restaurant was the “World Famous” Star Tavern in Orange. The pizzeria has been in business for over 65 years and serves thin-crust pizza from a kitchen open to customers. Sasso proclaimed that the restaurant served the best Caesar salad in the world. She said the romaine lettuce on the salad was always crisp, and the dressing was homemade.
The salad looked appetizing when it arrived, but it wasn’t memorable.
Making the perfect Caesar salad is not an art but requires a top-notch recipe. The ingredients should be garden-fresh, hand-torn romaine lettuce and eggs, extra-virgin olive oil, whole, peeled garlic, anchovies, and hand-grated imported Parmesan cheese. I’m confident you can find the other simple ingredients for the recipe I shared in any kitchen.
TIP # 1. WHY SHOULD YOU MAKE HOMEMADE?
Making homemade Caesar salad is better than purchasing store-bought, which contains ingredients such as xanthan gum, cheese culture, and natural flavor. Whatever those ingredients are, I don’t want to eat them or serve them to guests.
TIP # 2. ROMAINE IS ALL THE RAVE
Romaine lettuce is crunchy and high in minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium. It’s also an excellent source of vitamins C, K, and folate.
TIP # 3. ONLY FRESH INGREDIENTS WILL DO
Use only the finest ingredients. For example, never use bottled lemon juice in place of fresh-squeezed. Use only extra-virgin olive oil.
TIP # 4. CODDLE YOUR EGGS, PLEASE
This recipe calls for coddled eggs. Some chefs prefer uncooked eggs, but I suggest cooking them for health and safety reasons.
TIP # 5. YOUR HANDS WILL GET A WORKOUT
Buy a piece of Parmesan cheese and grate it by hand.
TIP # 6. YOU WILL HAVE SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT
When you use the exact measurement of ingredients and blend them, guests will take a bite of salad and beg for the recipe. Voila, you’re a chef.
RECIPE – Best Caesar Salad in The World
Servings: 6
3 small heads of romaine, washed, dried, and chilled
1 cup crisp croutons
1 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon salt
3 large cloves of garlic
8 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 cup olive oil
1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
3 eggs, coddled
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 1 and ½ lemons
Freshly ground black pepper
Step 1. In a large salad bowl, place the romaine torn in pieces. Top with croutons and cheese.
Step 2. In a blender, combine all the other ingredients and mix well.
Step 3. Pour the dressing around the outside of the bowl and toss well with the greens.
Step 4. Serve with croutons.
(Recipe from Linda Ruth Harvey’s “The Best of Colorado’s Gourmet Gold,” Laika Inc., 1982)
I copied the recipe from the Best of Colorado’s Gourmet Gold cookbook when I worked as a chef for my sister, Leslie Joy, who owned a catering business. Potential clients would look over sample menus at 24 Carrot Catering and undoubtedly ask to taste the Caesar salad. Joy said the response was always the same. “That is the best Caesar salad I have ever tasted.” The bittersweet irony of the request meant I would be in the kitchen preparing it. Sampling the final product was the one job I always loved.
The salad was first created in Tijuana, Mexico, at Caesar’s Restaurant and Bar, or so the story goes. According to an article by Erika Beach in With Love Paper and Wine, the restaurant’s original owner, Cesar, and his chef, Livio Santino, created the dressing in the 1920s. Legend has it that a famous Spanish reporter published an article with the recipe, and the salad became internationally renowned. There is still an ongoing fight over whether the original recipe had anchovies. I suggest telling your guests that Caesar dressing contains anchovies because the worst thing that can happen after a fabulous dinner is that someone ends up in the hospital with an allergic reaction to fish. You will sit in an emergency room in your party dress instead of your dining room.
Readers may also enjoy Old Fashion Cafe: A Taste of Italy in Soho NYC, Tony’s Di Napoli, and Meet Mario Carbone: A Genuine Guy.
