CAESAR SALAD
By Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 47). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
The Caesar Salad, which has been attributed to Caesar’s Palace, rather than ‘Caesar’s P-l-a-c-e’, has unfairly allowed credit to be given when it is not due. Caesar Cardini concocted this zesty salad in the early 1900’s, at his Tijuana, Mexico restaurant. Here is the true story from Cardini’s daughter, Rosa… One weekend, when a holiday brought Cardini unexpected tourist business, all he had on hand was a little romaine, some eggs, a wheel of Italian cheese, some lemons and dry bread. Wondering how he would handle the unusual crowd without sufficient food to serve them, he created a marriage of his various ingredients – and the salad that was a culinary accident, became a legend of gourmet fare!
INGREDIENTS:
3 medium heads of romaine lettuce (chilled, dried and crisp)
garlic-flavored corn oil (or olive oil)
a few tablespoons of wine vinegar
the juice of 1 lemon
two 2-minute coddled eggs (barely soft-boiled)
a grind of pepper and salt
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
grated Parmesan
2 cups toasted croutons
INSTRUCTIONS:
Break lettuce into pieces of 2- or 3-inch lengths. At the last minute, before serving, place these in a chilled salad bowl and drizzle with oil, wine vinegar and lemon juice. Break eggs over this with a grind of pepper and salt and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle liberally with grated Parmesan and toss lightly with croutons. If it is to your liking, add a few anchovy fillets to the salad. Serves 4.
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