"caesar salad" news and stories

Salad isn't exactly a traditional Thanksgiving dish. However, my mother always served it at our holiday meal. I think that she was convinced of the moral necessity of having at least one fresh vegetable on the table; either that, or she was worried that we were going to get scurvy and gout from gorging on turkey.

When I started making my own Thanksgiving dinner, I included this Caesar Salad. With the sharp tastes of fresh lemon and raw garlic, it provides a nice, palate-cutting counterpoint to the heavy, mellow flavors of roast poultry and potatoes.

3 large heads romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
9 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 1/2 Tablespoons light olive oil
4 1/2 Tablespoons water
4 1/2 Tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
12 anchovy fillets, drained and minced
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan (or Peccorino) cheese
2 cups croutons

Put romaine in a large bowl. Pour the remaining ingredients, except for the croutons, into a jar. Put the top on and shake until completely combined. Toss with lettuce. Right before serving, throw in the croutons and toss again.

When we think about food porn, the things that come to mind are decadent chocolate cakes, perfectly topped pizzas and sweet sorbets. But can salad be food porn? Of course it can, because food porn is about making the food look good and an array of fresh, colorful veggies almost always does. We saw a beautiful wedge salad once before, for example, but this Caesar Salad from Celia at English Patis deserves special attention. Not only is it simple and satisfying, but the homemade dressing topping it off is easy to make. It does not start off with eggs and oil, but uses mayonnaise as a base, so busy home chefs, as well as inexperienced ones, will always be able to whip up some caesar dressing before dinner.

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The Washington Post runs a ho-hum article about the Caesar Salad, but manages to catch my eye with an interesting bit about the history of the salad's origins. It was invented in 1924 by Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant and restaurant owner in Mexico. While a quick Google search backs up that claim, web site What's Cooking America provides a bit more information about the Caesar's trek to Europe (the site references a book that claims Mrs. Wallis Simpson brought the leafy dish across the Atlantic), and provides the histories of other well-known salads.

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