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

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

Goodness. I have been procrastinating posting this recipe simply because I do not how to spell Caesar. When I googled the word, there were at least five different spellings. So I decided to go with the spelling that the Little Caesar’s Pizza place uses, and guess what? It does NOT show up as misspelled in Microsoft Word. So it must be right...right?

Anyway, I once ate this salad at a potluck-type of meal provided for a hospitality room at a cheer competition. Apparently the cheer mom who made the salad is famous for it—I want to be famous, too! The main ingredients are simple: chicken, romaine lettuce, pasta, croutons and caesar dressing. I had never really contemplated mixing lettuce with pasta before, but it is a nice mixture of texture—especially if the lettuce is fresh and crunchy. Really, if you just mix the main ingredients together, you could take it to the table—that was the original salad that I sampled and decided I must someday duplicate.

However, in an effort to make the recipe “mine,” I experimented by adding other ingredients, which I think complemented the whole idea and made it quite a sassy little dish.

Main ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
Chopped/shredded chicken (I used rotisserie, but grilled would be great)
Boiled pasta (I used bow-tie, because I think they are cute)
Caesar dressing to taste (My fave brand: Litehouse Caesar Caesar)
Croutons

Other possibilities:
Toasted pine nuts (toast in dry pan until golden)
Shaved parmesan cheese (can buy shaved in grocery store)
Chopped red/yellow bell pepper
Chopped Genoa salami
Sweet grape tomatoes
Freshly ground pepper

Other tips:
• Depending on how many you are feeding, you will have to experiment with measurements. The pasta box will give you a good idea of serving sizes for the pasta portion.

• Make sure to SALT your pasta water—should taste like ocean-water, I learned on the Food Network channel one time. This is your only opportunity to season your pasta!

• Add salad dressing a little at a time—no need to drown the salad, hide all the good flavors, or add extra calories unnecessarily!