Caesar Salad

I love Caesar salad, I think it is the divine combination of the crisp leaves and the tart, creamy sauce. This recipe is a slight adaptation of Delia Smith’s version in her Summer Collection cookbook.

1 romaine (cos) lettuce
50g parmesan cheese
Small handful chopped flat leaf parsley
Small handful pine nuts

1 egg
2 cloves garlic
2 anchovy filets
Juice of half a lemon
1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
½tsp Worcester sauce
150ml EV olive oil

50g white bread (stale is good!) cut into largish cubes
1 clove garlic, chopped fine

Wash the lettuce and tear into pieces. Put into salad bowl with parsley.

In a bowl put the bread cubes, throw in the chopped garlic and about 1 or 2 tbsp olive oil. Stir bread to make sure all coated in oil. Place on a flat baking sheet and put in oven (400F/200C). PUT A TIMER ON! I have burnt these more times than I care to remember. Cook for five minutes only. They may need a couple of more minutes but watch them like a hawk. Remove and cool.

On the same baking sheet spread out pine nuts, place in oven and cook for three minutes. Remove and shake, and return to oven for further one minute. Remove and cool.

Make dressing by putting egg into a food processor, turn on the machine and add garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, mustard, Worcester sauce. Then slowly add the olive oil, keep the motor running.

Note: I prefer to blanch the garlic first to take away the very strong, slightly bitter taste that you can sometimes get. To do this put the cloves of garlic with skin on into a small saucepan of boiling water. Leave for one minute only, remove and plunge into a small bowl of very cold water. Repeat twice, remove skin and then use in the dressing.

Put croutons and pine nuts on top of salad leaves. With a potato peeler shave strips of parmesan on top of salad. Just before serving add dressing.