How to Make a Homemade Caesar Salad

Ingredients

1 egg

1 clove of garlic

6 anchovy fillets

3 tablespoons of Reggiano Parmesan cheese (preferably)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

½ loaf of bread (preferably sourdough or a baguette)

2 tablespoons of butter

2 heads of romaine

1 small pot (to coddle egg)

1 sharp dough masher or fork for mashing

1 wooden spoon

1 large wooden salad bowl

If making homemade croutons, do first so they bake while you are making the dressing. If you are using store bought croutons, skip to step 4.

To do the croutons, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and take a loaf of any bread of your choosing and cut into quarter or half inch cubes.

Melt two tablespoons of butter using a microwave or a pan on the stove then pour butter on cookie sheet and place the cubed pieces of bread evenly on the sheet. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden. Keep checking and you can also flip. (Add salt if you desire).

Chop the clove of garlic and rub it around the wooden salad bowl (THIS BOWL MUST BE WOODEN) to season it. Mash it with a wooden spoon and let sit for a few minutes then remove the remaining garlic.

Add 6 fillets of anchovies

Grate 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and add to anchovies.

Use dough masher or fork until the texture is that of a smooth paste (if it’s not perfect, the oil and egg that we add later should help).

At this point we need to coddle the egg, this means adding it to boiling water for exactly one minute, then taking it out and rinsing under cold water before cracking it into the bowl. (The egg will look like it’s not cooked. It is perfect. This is a coddled egg. If you can’t peel it, just take off a bit of peel and pour the egg into the bowl. Scrape whatever is left in the shell.

Add the coddled egg to the anchovy, garlic, and cheese mixture and continue to mash until smooth. As you mash, be sure to add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of wine vinegar.

Once smooth, the dressing is done, and we can move to the lettuce.

Wash the lettuce under cold water, then tear/rip the lettuce into pieces and put into the salad spinner. Then spin dry.

Once the two heads of lettuce are washed and dried (using the spinner), add the lettuce to the Caesar dressing and toss with salad spoons.

Take the bread out of the oven and toss into the salad.

Your Caesar salad is now ready for consumption!