For Christmas eve Greg and I were asked to bring a salad and veggie option to our family party. I thought it over and decided to make a homemade caesar salad, with fresh made dressing and croutons. Homemade dressings make such a difference. You can taste each ingredient and they are just far superior to any bottled dressing you find in the grocery store. Making caesar dressing was easy and and the outcome was delicious!
Greg got a loaf of bread from Mancini’s- tomato basil bread to be exact- and I made croutons with it. I don’t see any pictures of them on my camera so I guess I forgot to snap a few. Croutons are easy to make. I cut the bread into small cubes and placed them on a lined baking sheet. I brushed the pieces of bread with olive oil and baked them at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
As part of Foodbuzz’s tastemaker program, we were sent a coupon for a free bottle of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. This is a key ingredient in the caesar salad dressing so I was glad to have the good stuff for it.
Another key ingredient in the dressing is anchovy paste. You should be able to find it in your grocery store near the canned fish. Don’t be scared of it! It provides the saltiness in the dressing (no other salt is added) and does not have a strong fish taste. Once in the dressing you won’t taste any fishy flavor, it simply provides a nice deep salty flavor that you’ll recognize as caesar.
Then it’s pretty much just a matter of combining all of the ingredients in the dressing. Mayo, garlic, hot sauce, olive oil, etc.
Give it a good whisk. 
Cover the dressing and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
To assemble the salad, hand shred romaine lettuce. Rinse and drain.
Add some freshly shaved parmesan cheese. I used a vegetable peeler to shave the cheese into these nice thin slices.
Add the croutons and toss with the dressing.
So simple, yet so good. We also served this on Christmas because we liked it so much. Hope you do too!
-E
Starving Kitten 
This looks SO perfect! My mom makes an awesome Caesar salad and I used to request it alll the time. Then she started getting all healthy with it. I want the mayo and olive oil! She also made homemade croutons that were delicious. I think you’ve inspired me to make a Caesar salad now! Totally craving it 🙂
This is awesome! I love Caesar salad. I think it’s kind of weird when restaurants don’t make their own dressing or at least use a homemade-looking kind. I ordered a Caesar salad at a restaurant once and they gave me a packet of Ken’s dressing…ew. I might try and make this this weekend!