by Laurent Tourondel and Michele Scicolone
from Bistro Laurent Tourondel: New American Bistro Cooking
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007)
Serves 6
This salad is my interpretation of a steakhouse classic. The original Caesar salad was created in 1924 by Caesar Cardini, an Italian, at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, and was made with romaine lettuce. My version uses full-flavored tender spinach leaves and slightly bitter radicchio instead and includes bacon. I think bacon makes everything taste better.—Laurent Tourondel and Michele Scicolone
convert Ingredients
4 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white vinegar
For the croutons
1/2 loaf country bread, crusts removed (about 12 ounces)
1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 garlic clove, minced
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the caesar dressing
6 salted anchovy fillets, rinsed and patted dry
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
For the salad
1 1/2 pounds baby spinach, washed, trimmed, and well-dried
1 medium head radicchio, washed, trimmed, and well dried
10 slices (about 1/2 pound) cooked double-smoked bacon, crumbled
1 1/2 cups
(12 ounces) crumbled blue cheese, such as Point Reyes Original Blue
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Directions
1. Place the eggs in a medium saucepan with salted water to cover. Add the vinegar. (Adding vinegar to the water as the eggs cook helps the egg whites to set better.) Bring the water to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 4 minutes.
2. Remove 2 of the eggs and cool them in a bowl of ice water. They will be lightly cooked. These are for the dressing.
3. Cook the remaining 2 eggs 8 minutes longer, or until they are hard cooked. Drain and cool to room temperature under running water. Peel the hard-cooked eggs and separate the yolks and the whites. Pass the whites and yolks separately through a sieve.
Make the croutons
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Cut the bread into 1/2-inch cubes. You should have about 2 cups.
3. Toss the bread with the Parmigiano-Reggiano, olive oil, paprika, garlic, and salt and pepper. Spread the bread cubes in a large pan. Bake, stirring once or twice, 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool.
Make the Caesar dressing
1. Crack the soft-cooked eggs and scoop them into a food processor or blender. Add the anchovies, mustard, and garlic. Process or blend until smooth. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a thin stream. Blend in the cheese and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. You should have about 2 cups dressing.
Make the salad
1. Toss the spinach and radicchio with enough dressing to evenly coat the leaves.
2. Divide the salad among 6 plates. Scatter the croutons and crumbled bacon on top. Sprinkle with the cheese and the sieved eggs.
Recipe © 2008 by Laurent Tourondel. All rights reserved.
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[D. Teddy Diggs] For me, this is simply the perfect Caesar salad. I like Caesar salads, and I always what I order them in restaurants, but in my opinion, the classic Caesar—though good—always needs “more.” This one has more, and then some. I love the fact that the dressing uses a soft-boiled (rather than raw) egg. I love the way that the finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano coated and fused with the croutons. I love the substitution of the more flavorful and colorful spinach-radicchio mix for the romaine lettuce. I love the crunchy-creamy and smoky-tangy addition of bacon and blue cheese. I love how passing the hard-boiled egg whites and yolks through a sieve created a more subtle egg flavor throughout and a lovely fluffy looking topping. I love that the recipe did not require much work but resulted in a gorgeous presentation. I love this salad.
[Kathleen Crim] This recipe is a winner. It is over the top. The combination of the spinach and radicchio is wonderful. The dressing has great flavor and the croutons are delicious. I was concerned that it would be salt overload with the bacon and blue cheese, but it was acceptable, and I did omit the salt in the croutons. I must say, though, this recipe is a lot of work. Sieving the eggs—yikes—can’t you just chop them? It’s not the quick weekday Caesar. I consider this a special-occasion salad and worth the work.
Thanks for posting this recipe, I loved it: A cool and perfectly satisfying meal, even on a life-sapping southern California summer evening when even the tap water runs warm. Follow with a fresh berry compote and some madeleines. I loved the contrasts comprising the dressing–the balance between the sparky garlic, lemon juice, mustard, and freshly ground pepper and the dense emulsification of virgin olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano, egg, and smoky-fishy anchovy. And, well, who can say “no” to lots of bacon and exemplary croutons (from which I had to shoo away my son). I’m not a bleu cheese fan; but I can imagine it would be this salad’s final touch to put a bleu enthusiast over the moon.
Since different spinach producers obviously have varying perspectives on what constitutes “baby spinach,” choose the more tender variety, at least in the summer. The leaves are tossed lightly anyway because the dressing is very rich.