I see Caesar salad as one of those recipes that can really roll with the seasons. The key elements stay the same: the crisp leaves; the punchy dressing (and the pre-dressing, we’ll get on to that in a sec); the croutons, which I actually prefer to be fried coarse breadcrumbs (more even browning, better distribution, all round just a better eating experience). With those three boxes checked, from there it can be played with according to what’s in season, what looks good at the shops, and what you’ve got in the kitchen.
For example, I’ve previously shared my Autumn / Winter version involving bitter leaves (radicchio, chicory, frisée), celery, and anchovy breadcrumbs. It’s exactly what I want to eat in the dark months of the year to punctuate the soups and stews. But fortunately those days are behind us now!
Here is my Spring / Summer version. It goes something like this… Crisp lettuce - I like baby gem, but you could use romaine or oak leaf, for example. The key is that it’s crisp. Peppery leaves for additional flavour - watercress, land cress, or similar. Shaved fennel for texture - you could use baby courgettes thinly sliced into rounds, or kohlrabi, or radishes. I also include white beans simply because I love them - you could swap for leftover roast chicken or quartered boiled eggs, both of which work well with the dressing.
Forgive the slightly stretched metaphor: but see this like putting together an outfit. In this case, a Spring / Summer outfit. Sort the essentials then you can play around to make it your own.
SS Caesar Salad
I think one of the most crucial steps for Caesar salad, whatever its constituent parts, is pre-dressing. By that I mean, tossing the leaves/fennel/veg/beans etc with lemon juice and salt first to prime them for the rich Caesar dressing that follows.
Serves 4
150ml olive oil
50g coarse fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 garlic clove
2 lemons
4-6 anchovy fillets, to taste
30g parmesan
1 small fennel bulb
1 gem lettuce
1x 400g tin or 1/2 x 660g jar of white beans
Bunch of chives
2 large handfuls of peppery salad leaves (eg watercress, land cress)
Heat 50ml olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Once shimmering, add the breadcrumbs and fry for about 3 minutes, stirring fairly regularly, until golden and crisp. Remove from the heat, season lightly with salt and set aside to cool as you make the dressing.
Put the egg yolk and dijon in a medium bowl. Finely grate in the garlic clove and the zest of one lemon. Roughly chop the anchovies then, using the side of your knife, smoosh to a paste and add to the bowl. Grind in lots and lots of black pepper. Whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in the remaining 100ml olive oil, whisking continuously. Finely grate just over half the parmesan into the dressing, mix, then finally add the juice of half a lemon. Taste and adjust, making sure there is plenty of black pepper to cut through the parmesan. It should be really punchy.
Thinly slice the fennel. Trim and pull apart the gem lettuce leaves. Drain and rinse the beans. Finely chop the chives.
In a large bowl, toss the fennel, gem lettuce, beans, peppery leaves and most of the chives (hold back on some for serving) with the juice of a whole lemon and a pinch of salt. Add about half of the dressing to start with and toss well (hands are the best tossing tool here). Start with what may seem a very modest amount of dressing; you can always add more later but there is nothing worse than over-dressed soggy, droopy salad. Taste for seasoning. Top with the breadcrumbs, remaining parmesan and chives. Serve with the rest of the dressing for people to add another splash or two if they like.
Bits & bobs
A piece on dressing up for dinner - amen to this!
Sort of ridiculous, sort of brilliant
What a sarnie
i also love caesar because it somehow always hits the spot.