June 3, 2011
Salad dressing was one of the first things I learned to make without using a recipe. Of course, there is still a place in my heart for those knockout sauces that require that one hard-to-find ingredient (doesn’t it seem like there’s always one?) and hours of mixing that rivals high school chemistry, but 99.9% of the time, my motto for salad dressing is “keep it simple and keep it fresh.”
This simple dressing uses basil snipped from my garden, a lemon plucked from my tree, and garlic pulled from my daughter’s school’s vegetable garden. I tossed it in a bed of lettuce, cherry tomatoes (still waiting on those juicy garden fruits…darnit!), and freshly picked cucumbers. It is quick, easy, fresh, delicious, and perfect for early summer. Enjoy!
Serves 6
1 clove of garlic
4 leaves of fresh basil
Generous pinch of salt
The juice of half a lemon
Olive oil to taste
In a mortar and pestle, mash the clove of garlic with the basil leaves and a generous pinch of salt until you form a paste. Then, whisk in the lemon juice. When the lemon juice is mixed in, drizzle in olive oil until the dressing is the consistency you want. Serve over greens and veggies of your choosing, or use as a sauce for chicken.
