Gorgeous romaine lettuce
As part of our first CSA share, we received two medium-sized heads of romaine lettuce. They were really gorgeous – vibrant green, fresh, and crisp. We wanted to make caesar salad with it, but our usual homemade dressing is pretty heavy and thick. We didn’t want to overwhelm the lettuce and lose the fresh flavor so we decided to lighten it up a bit by omitting the egg and garlic and putting in a smaller amount of anchovy paste.
The dressing really couldn’t be simpler, and I made it in my knock-off magic bullet blender. Just throw the following ingredients in, eyeballing the amounts:
-Juice of one lemon
-About a teaspoon of anchovy paste
-A dash of worcestershire sauce
-Grated parmesan cheese
-Salt
-Pepper
-Olive oil
The amount of olive oil depends on how thick you want it to be. I started with about a quarter of a cup and then increased it to make the dressing a bit thicker, so that it would cling to the leaves. Blend, and then toss with the leaves, which we cleaned and chopped into 1 inch pieces. Grate some extra parmesan over the top, and a few grinds of pepper.
Lightly dressed leaves
The salad was really fantastic, with the lemon brightening everything up. The lettuce itself was the best romaine we’ve ever eaten, crisp and flavorful, not watery and bland like the romaine you get from the supermarket. We served the salad alongside some tilapia cakes that Josh made extra special by adding in some bits of crunchy turkey bacon. It was a light meal but packed with flavor, and so very easy to prepare.
Tilapia cakes with caesar salad