Cæsar salad dressing

I was watching Adam Ragusea do a Cæsar salad and he gave the recipe for this dressing from a friend. It's better than store-bought and extremely easy to make.

Ingredients

2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup mayonnaise (see note 1)
2 filets anchovy (see note 2)
juice of 1 lemon
quantity of olive oil as juice from the lemon (see note 3)
1 shot Worcestershire sauce
salt (a light amount because of anchovy)
fresh-ground black pepper (tend toward a lot)

Note 1: Mayonnaise is egg yolk, mustard and oil. It's easier to use than separating eggs and beating them into the dressing. And, it's just as good an emulsifier.

Note 2: "Why anchovies? For flavor? I hate anchovies!" The anchovies provide umami. You will...

  1. not taste "anchovies" at all (only you will know they're there) and...
  2. notice some really great though indiscernable flavor missing if you leave it out.

That is, if you taste this dressing done right and/or you taste a good Cæsar dressing in a restaurant, then make your dressing leaving out the anchovies, you will notice and regret the difference.

Note 3: In other words, the body of this dressing is 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts olive oil. This means that this recipe will not scale well: if you make more, you'll need to scale all the other ingredients along with the quantity of lemon juice and olive oil you use or the dressing will be less flavorful.

Preparation

1. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl.

2. Use an immersion blender to finish the dressing.*

3. Toss your salad's Romain leaves in this dressing just moments before serving. When tossing, also include a good quantity of parmigiano reggiano or other grana-style cheese grated into fine strands.

* You can just mix hard with a whisk, but the immersion blender will ensure the anchovies and garlic disappear into the dressing more completely. The first time I made this, I used a whisk because I didn't want to have to clean my immersion blender, but I liked the result anyway.