Italian Vinaigrette

I bought some baby lettuce at the farmers market this weekend. What better occasion to make a homemade vinaigrette? At Christmas time, Santa placed a new vinaigrette holder from Williams-Sonoma in my stocking. It has a little whirly-gig that supposedly emulsifies the settled dressing. I still shook it. I'm less impressed with the fact that it has the whirly-gig and more impressed that the bottle has four different recipes printed right on it. Haaaaaaaaaaandy. This was my new bottle's debut.

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Now, the key to a good vinaigrette is really just one thing, in my opinion: good quality extra-virgin olive oil. Lucky for me I now have a subscription to "Cooks Illustrated." Lucky for me there are literally hundreds of products taste-and-quality tested by the people who run Cooks Illustrated. Lucky for you that I will share my learning with you for free. So, at Meijer, I purchased a big bottle of one of their "recommended" brands of olive oils: Colavita. Had I remembered the "highly recommended" winner-of-the-taste-test brand: Columela, I would have looked to see if they carry it.

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ANYWAY, back to the vinaigrette. It turned out LOVELY. And all the salad consisted of was baby lettuce & vinaigrette. In addition to flavor, this is what is so great about this recipe: I know exactly what is in it (as in NO preservatives or gloopy, gloppy, "stuff"); the recipe does not make an enormous amount that will eventually end up in the garbage; the ingredients are all items I typically have on hand. I thought the vinaigrette was excellent last night, and I thought it was even better this evening after the minced garlic had the chance to swim around in the oil for awhile.

Italian Vinaigrette
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1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon dry italian herb blend (I used Penzey's of course)

1 teaspoon dijon mustard (optional...but I love this addition)

salt & pepper to taste