Homemade Italian dressing

Main ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil. The base of this dressing is the ingredient you will like the most. Use a good one. I like Private Reserve Greek Olive Oil for its peppery, grassy undertones, while our Italian Nocellara is buttery and smooth.
• Red wine vinegar adds a mild, rounded acidity, but feel free to use white wine vinegar instead.
• White vinegar. Plain old distilled vinegar gives this Italian dressing recipe its signature flavor.
• parmesan cheese provides a nutty savory flavor, unifying the emulsion. Use Pecorino Romano for a spicy, salty, punchier dressing.
• Garlic. I believe that garlic should be the dominant flavor in Italian dressing. I grind the peeled cloves on a fine grater to make a fine paste that is dispersed in the dressing. The heat of the garlic mellows as it sits in the vinegar, but the flavor remains.
• Honey. Just a spoonful softens the vinegar and adds a fragrant, subtle sweetness.
• Tomato paste. The natural glutamates in the tomato paste balance the flavor of the oil and vinegar with spiciness and give it a rosy-orange color.
• Italian seasoning a blend of dried oregano, basil, thyme and other herbs adds character.
• Sweet paprika. The sweet chili adds heat and color.

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) packaged finely grated Parmesan cheese, 3 finely grated or grated garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
• Shake to combine.
• Save leftover dressing in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature before serving and shake to re-emulsify.

How to make a creamy Italian sauce

There is another version of Italian dressing popularized by a chain of Italian restaurants that is also very popular. It is opaque, light golden in color and creamy in consistency.

You can make this dressing by replacing the tomato paste with a couple of tablespoons of canned mayonnaise, or use another trick I came up with.

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

Bonus: this is a safer option than using raw egg yolk!

History of Italian clothing

Despite the name, Italian seasoning is an American invention. The origin story of what we now think of 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 dressing became so popular at her husband’s steakhouse in Massachusetts that they eventually bottled and sold it under the name Ken’s Salad Dressing, and Lena Salomi, whose Sicilian family recipe became the basis for what became the Wish-Bone brand in Kansas City.

What to cook with Italian dressing

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

Fresh greens drizzled with Italian dressing make a great crunchy side dish for shrimp scampi, salmon piccata, or another Italian-American favorite, chicken spedini. This dressing also makes a great marinade for grilled chicken breasts.

If you have a jar handy, here are three more recipes you can use this Italian dressing for.

• Italian pasta salad: Rotini topped with a spicy Italian dressing with salami, pickled artichokes, cherry tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini and fresh mozzarella.
• Tortellini salad with spinach: Cheese filled tortelloni with baby spinach, fresh herbs, mozzarella, olives and sun-dried tomatoes.
• Antipasti salad: A salty, hearty bundle of salami, pepperoni, provolone, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, and olives.
• Use it for more than just salads! Spoon it over the grilled fish as a finishing sauce, mix it with your favorite roasted vegetables or use it as a marinade for chicken.