Sort-of Caesar dressing

In the summertime we eat a lot of salads, and often those are Caesar salads, which means that we go through a lot of Caesar dressing. Now, for health reasons, I've been forced to cut back on my sugar intake, and most commercial salad dressings - including Caesar dressings - contain significant amounts of sugar; ergo, if I want to continue eating lots of salads, I have to find alternatives to commercially-produced dressings.

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Fortunately, the Internet abounds with inspiration for formulating your own home-made dressings, and this recipe is one such. I call it "sort-of" Caesar dressing, because I've done some ingredient substitutions, and I have no intention of getting into a war of words with the ossified minds of purist foodies. The bottom line is: I've made this dressing myself, and to my palate, it is virtually indistinguishable from the so-called "real thing".

So, if you like Caesar salad, and you've a mind to try out something for which you probably already stock (most of) the ingredients, in your own kitchen, then you might want to give this a try.

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Suggested Equipment:

• Immersion or other type of blender
• Common kitchen tools and measures
• Container suitable for storing and dispensing finished dressing

Ingredients:

1. Not absolutely necessary. You can use regular old olive oil!
2. Dijon preferred.
3. Most foodie recipes will insist on anchovy paste, 1-1½ tsp... but oily fish is oily fish. Some also require addition of tamarind paste. I don't.
4. If you don't have the fresh garlic, you can substitute ½ tsp dry garlic granules.

Item		Amount
Mayonnaise	Sugar-free preferred: e.g., Duke's® brand	1	cup
Olive oil	Extra-virgin1	1	Tbs
Mustard	Prepared2	2	tsp
Cheese	Parmesan, grated	¼	cup
Juice	Lemon	2	tsp
Sauce	Worcestershire	1	tsp
Vinegar	Your preferred type	1	tsp
Sardines3	Small, packed in oil	2-4	ea
Garlic	Fresh, cloves, minced4	2	ea
Salt	Common	½	tsp
Black pepper	Dry, ground	½	tsp

Directions:

1. Blend together all ingredients except the mayonnaise and Parmesan cheese, until smooth.

2. Add the mayonnaise, and again blend until smooth.

3. Add the Parmesan cheese, and (once again) blend until smooth.

4. Refrigerate overnight, then use like you would a store-bought Caesar dressing. If your dressing seems to be too thick, blend in 1 tablespoon of milk.

This, like almost all home-made dressings, contains no preservatives. If you make this dressing, you should be prepared to have Caesar salads pretty frequently until you've used the dressing up. I would discard any dressing that begins to look or smell even slightly suspicious, and any unused dressing over one week old.