February 1, 2015
My recipe card for this recipe dates back to 1984 or 1985 and I remember writing it down after a great meal at a law school friend’s home where we enjoyed this salad immensely. Karen Lisa was (and surely still is) a great cook.

Caesar salad used to be one of those fancy salads you would order at a restaurant and a chef would wheel out a cart to prepare the dressing and salad right at table side. You can now purchase bottled caeser salad dressing at the grocery store – but it’s not anywhere near as good as this! The dressing does have quite a few ingredients – but I find that it makes plenty of dressing for 2 good size salads. It is worth making, especially if you want to make it a main dish salad with the addition of grilled chicken, shrimp or salmon. I typically consider it a summer dish – but we enjoyed it for dinner this past week with grilled chicken.

This recipe does call for one raw egg and 1 3/4 cans of anchovy fillets. I have been purchasing organic, fresh brown eggs and feel comfortable using the raw egg – but the egg can easily be omitted. The dressing will keep in your refrigerator for 4-5 days with the raw egg, longer without it. I have always used anchovy paste. You can typically find it in the canned fish area of your grocery store. It comes in a tube that needs refrigeration after you open it. Don’t be afraid of it – the flavor it gives to the dressing is salty and rich – not fishy at all.

If I add croutons, I prefer to cut up stale bread into cubes and sauté them with 2 TBS olive oil or butter with added garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. You can also toast them in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 375′. These taste much better than the store-bought (full of weird preservatives) version.