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This salad dressing was Julius Caesar’s favorite. Right before he gathered the Roman army to go out on a conquest, he’d have a nice salad. It put him in the mood for pillaging and plundering.
As a matter of fact, when Caesar was assassinated by Brutus, as Caesar lay dying, Brutus mentioned to Caesar his breath smelled like garlic.
Brutus asked, “Did you just have one of your salads?”
And Caesar said, “Ate two, Brutus!”
I like Caesar salad. But I couldn’t get the dressing just right. I tried making it a bunch of different ways.
Nothing was working.
One of the concerns I have with the traditional way of preparation is the raw egg. When you eat raw eggs you run the risk of salmonella. I’m not a big fan of salmonella.
Unless you’re talking about...Sam and Ella. Sammy Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.
So, I eliminated the raw egg in my Caesar salad dressing.
Another problem I was having was…the dressing needed a little something. I tried a little Worcestershire sauce, but it turned the dressing a yucky brown color. I tried normal balsamic vinegar, and the same thing happened.
Here is where my culinary cleverosity kicked in…instead of using brown balsamic vinegar, I tried white balsamic vinegar. I don’t know where they’ve been hiding this stuff, but it’s great!
It has a touch of sweetness, and I love the flavor. So I used white balsamic vinegar, it was a huge improvement, both in flavor and appearance.
It’s the best ever, worthy of you Slim People.
But what about the croutons? The homemade croutons?
I know what you’re saying. “I start making my own croutons, and pretty soon I’m growing my own wheat and plowing fields behind a donkey at the crack of dawn. Where does it end?”
Right here. These croutons take five minutes to make. That’s it. And they’re so good, you can eat them as is. Forget the salad. Eat the croutons!
I don’t like store-bought croutons. They taste like chalk, and it’s like eating a box of rocks.
You might crack a back molar. Injure an incisor.
So I began my quest to create the best croutons in the world. Some recipes suggested using old, stale bread. I tried that and I wasn’t digging it. Old stale bread tastes…old and stale.
So I said to myself, ”Slim Poppa, Show Stoppa, why don’t you use fresh bread?”
I tried fresh bread. I used half a fresh baguette, and the croutons were scrump-diddly-umptious.
When I’m making croutons, I don’t use bread that’s heavily flavored like kalamata olive bread, or roasted garlic bread.
Why? Because this salad dressing has enough flavors going on!
For instance, my Hail Caesar salad dressing, which has been hailed as the greatest in the world, has garlic in the dressing.
So if you use roasted garlic bread for the croutons...she’s a-too much!
My favorite is sourdough baguette. But you can also use focaccia or ciabatta, as long as they’re not too heavily flavored.
You don’t need to add salt to the croutons. Most bread already has salt in it.
After you’ve crafted your Caesar salad, at the very end, a little shaved Parmigiano on top is a nice touch.
It’s tough shaving the Parm, but it’s much better than having hairy cheese!
CROUTON INGREDIENTS
½ baguette, fresh, cut into cubes (the size of sugar cubes, 3 cups)
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
Fresh cracked black pepper
½ teaspoon dried oregano
Here we go…
Put a large sauté pan on medium-high heat.
Add the butter.
When the butter melts and starts to bubble, add the cubed bread.
Grind some fresh cracked black pepper on the bread.
Sprinkle the oregano on the bread.
Toss and coat!
Let them brown for about 2 minutes. Don’t be shaking ‘em all around, let ‘em brown.
Toss!
Let them brown on the other side for another 2 minutes. Make sure each cube is getting toasted on each side. Show some love to both sides, now!
Remove from heat.
That’s it!
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