Key Ingredients

• extra virgin olive oil. The base of this dressing is the ingredient you will taste the most. Use a good one. I love Private Reserve Greek Olive Oil for its peppery, grassy finish, while our Italian Nocellara is buttery and smooth.
• Red wine vinegar adds a smooth, rounded acidity, but feel free to use white wine vinegar instead.
• White vinegar. Old, plain distilled vinegar gives this Italian salad dressing recipe its signature flavor.
• Parmesan cheese gives a nutty, savory flavor while bringing the emulsion together. Use Pecorino Romano for a tangy, salty and more assertive dressing.
• Garlic. I think garlic should be a dominant flavor in Italian dressing. I grate the peeled cloves on a microplane to obtain a fine pulp that disperses in the vinaigrette. The heat of the garlic softens as it sits in the vinegar, but the flavor remains.
• Dear. Just a spoonful softens the edge of the vinegar and adds an aromatic, subtle sweetness.
• Tomato paste. The natural glutamates in tomato paste balance the flavor of the oil and vinegar and give it a ruddy orange color.
• Italian seasoning a blend of dried oregano, basil, thyme and other herbs adds character.
• Sweet paprika. Adds heat and color to sweet pepper.

How to Make Homemade Italian Dressing

• In a bottle or jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 cup distilled vinegar, 1/4 cup (1 ounce) finely grated Parmesan, 3 finely minced or grated garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black. pepper.
• Shake to combine.
• Saving Leftover Dressing refrigerate for up to 4 days. Let come to room temperature before serving and shake again to emulsify again.

How to Make Creamy Italian Dressing

There is another version of Italian dressing popularized by an Italian restaurant chain that is also very popular. It is opaque, with a slightly golden color and a creamy texture.

You can make a dressing like this by swapping the tomato paste for a few tablespoons of jarred mayonnaise, or you can use another trick I found.

• Skip the mayonnaise and replace the tomato paste with one or two hard-boiled egg yolks. Simply blend the dressing with an immersion blender. The yolk acts as a natural emulsifier, binding the oil and vinegar into a creamy, cohesive dressing.

Prime: This is a safer option than using raw egg yolk!

History of Italian Vinaigrette

Despite its name, Italian salad dressing is an American invention. The origin of what we think of today as Italian dressing – oil, vinegar, herbs and spices – is the legacy of two Italian-American women cooking in different restaurant kitchens in the 1940s.

Florence Hanna, whose family recipe for oil and vinegar vinaigrette became so popular at her husband’s steakhouse in Massachusetts that they eventually bottled it and sold it as Ken’s Salad Dressing, and Lena Sollomi, whose family Sicilian recipe formed the basis of what would become the Wish-Bone brand in Kansas City.

What to do with Italian vinaigrette

While testing this recipe, I used the majority of each batch to dress this large, easy Italian salad. It’s a combination of crispy romaine (and sometimes I add iceberg) with radicchio, tomatoes, olives and pepperoncini.

Fresh greens with a drizzle of Italian vinaigrette make a great crunchy accompaniment to shrimp scampi, salmon picatta, or another Italian-American favorite, chicken spiedini. This dressing is also a great shortcut marinade for grilled chicken breasts.

Once you have a jar on hand, here are three other recipes where you can implement this Italian dressing.

• Italian pasta salad: Rotini tossed in tangy Italian vinaigrette with salami, marinated artichokes, cherry tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini and fresh mozzarella pearls.
• Spinach Tortellini Salad: Cheese-filled tortelloni with baby spinach, fresh herbs, mozzarella, olives and sun-dried tomatoes.
• Antipasto salad: A savory and satisfying blend of salami, pepperoni, provolone, mozzarella, artichoke hearts and olives.
• Use it for more than salads! Pour it over grilled fish as a finishing sauce, mix it with your favorite roasted vegetables Or use it as a chicken marinade.