I make a lot of my own salad dressings, they're so easy to make yourself. But it took me a while to find a Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe that we thought was as good (or, dare I say, better?) than shop-bought. Well here it is.

Caesar salad is said to have been invented by Caesar Cardini, in his restaurant in Mexico. The story goes that Mr Cardini invented the salad and dressing in his Caesar's Restaurant in the Hotel Caesar, when he didn't have many supplies in the kitchen so had to make do with a few ingredients. And so it was that the Caesar Dressing was born.

Rosa was Caesar's daughter. As a child, Rosa helped to bottle her Dad's dressings to sell at local markets. According to The Telegraph, by the 1990s one in four of all salads sold in American restaurants were made to Rosa Cardini (Caesar's daughter)'s recipe.

Is this an authentic Caesar Dressing Recipe?

There is some debate about what the original dressing contained, so it's hard to say. But an authentic Caesar dressing is usually thickened with raw eggs. Whilst we usually have a lot of fresh eggs in the house thanks to our chickens, this recipe doesn't contain raw eggs. Because I found that no matter what recipe I followed, I didn't enjoy the taste when the dressing was made that way. This recipe uses mayonnaise as a base which is probably a bit of a cheat. But it means you can make it really quickly. Plus the mayonnaise gives a really lovely texture to the dressing.

A Caesar salad tends to contain a mixture of romaine lettuce, anchovies, croutons, caesar dressing and extra parmesan (or it does in our house!). However this dressing is lovely on any salad really.

The dressing has anchovies in it, which give it a lovely taste without being too 'fishy'. You can use a couple of anchovies from the tin from which you're making your salad. Or if you make this dressing a lot and don't always want anchovies in your salad, anchovy paste lasts for ages in the fridge. It also makes the dressing even faster to make because you don't have to chop the fish.

This recipe makes a small batch which is enough for about 4 main course salads. Simply double it if you'd like more.

HOMEMADE CAESAR DRESSING

Ingredients

• 1 pressed garlic clove
• 3 anchovies from a tin. Chop them up into the tiniest pieces you can manage. Or use one half a teaspoon of anchovy paste instead.
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
• One half teaspoon Worcester Sauce
• 8 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Salt & Pepper.

Method

Mix the garlic, chopped anchovies/anchovy paste, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Add the mayonnaise, Parmigiano-Reggiano, salt and pepper.

Whisk it all together until well combined. Taste and season a bit more if you like.

Once made, store your Homemade Caesar Dressing in a small jar in the fridge. It also makes a lovely dip, and will keep for about a week.

[This post contains links to our webshop and/or affiliate links to other shops. If you click on them, I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Find our disclosure policy here.]