Caesar Salad.

This is one of my most favourite salads and what I like most about it is the story that goes with it. It is named after Caesar Cardini who owned Caesar’s Palace in Los Angeles. Now the story I was told was he was on holiday in Mexico when some famous film types paid him a visit. So he grabbed what he had and made them a salad. If this is true then it truly shows that necessity is the mother of invention.

For the dressing
15g / ½ oz of anchovy fillets, finely chopped
2 tsp cappers finely chopped.
2tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard
1 very soft boiled egg.
The juice of half a lemon
1 garlic clove crushed
2 large tdsp fine grated parmesan
150 to 300ml 1 to 10 fl oz extra virgin olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper

For the salad
Lettuces.
4 slices of bread
A little olive oil
75g 3oz parmesan shavings.

To make the dressing just get every thing in a bowl all finely chopped and crushed together then drizzle in the oil and whisk it all together . The egg needs only boiling for 1 to 1½ minutes so that the centre is still soft and it blends in to the dressing. It makes a real garlicky salty dressing.

Take your bread cut of the crusts and cut in to nice big crotons. Toss the bread in the oil, a grind of pepper and place on a try in the oven and bake. Keep an eye on it and turn it every now and then until the bread is fully crisp.

Now for you lettuces you want a nice crisp lettuce. Little Gem , Coss or Iceberg are all good for this salad . Break the salad leaves up wash it and then toss it in the dressing. Then add half the parmesan and half the crotons and toss them in. Finnish by sprinkling the rest of the crotons and parmesan on top.

This salad goes perfectly with smoked chicken if you can get it or just chicken pan-fried with smoked bacon. Add it on top or to the side warm and you have the perfect summer lunch.