Caesar Salad

One of my favorite salads of all time is the Caesar Salad. Served any number of ways, from deliciously fake-Italian to bizarrely deconstructed, this tasty salad nearly always satisfies my Caesar cravings. I think the only time I haven't been such a fan is when the dressing came from a bottle, and even then sometimes the bottled variety is not so bad!

A search for the original recipe yielded this:

Julia Child's description of her 1970's phone interview with Rosa Cardini, daughter of the Caesar salad creator, Caesar Cardini.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup day-old bread, cubed
3/4 cup garlic oil*, divided use
2 small heads romaine lettuce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper and anchovies
2 eggs, coddled (boiled in the shell for 1 minute)
Juice of 2 medium lemons
8-10 drops of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

*Quote: "To prepare the garlic oil, place 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and quartered, in a good quality (e.g. Extra Virgin) olive oil and let it stand at room temperature several hours or even up to 5 days."

Serves 4.

There is some debate as to whether or not those anchovies should be in the salad or not. According to some, Caesar was against their use and only used Worchestershire sauce as the source of anchovy flavor.

For the vegetarians of the world, the salad is often fine without the anchovies. For the vegans of the world, try substituting eggs with silken tofu!

~flutterbyblue

Image of Caesar Cardini hotel and restaurant in Tijuana obtained from wikipedia