Vinaigrette

I should probably have a standard vinaigrette recipe. I don't, but I am generally pretty happy with how it turns out. This will be less a recipe and more just notes on how I think about making dressing. That said, here are the ingredients I tend to use.

All of my vinaigrette has the following:

• Vinegar (mostly balsamic, often red wine)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

But when I want to make it more flavorful I might add:

• Garlic (roasted or fresh ground to paste)
• Onion
• Various herbs
• Citrus juice
• Citrus zest

• The biggest improvement I made to my dressing was using more oil and less vinegar. I love vinegar and it's right there in the name, but it's easy to go overboard and make your vinaigrette to acidic and too thin. I haven't really measured this, but I think I start at about 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar and adjust from there


• Speaking of oil, if you're going to be using so much of it you should pick one that tastes good to you. I found this list after learning that a lot of olive oil is blended with other vegetable oils. Personally I picked Partanna and haven't looked back


• Use enough salt! I guess this goes without saying, but it really helps the vinegar pop


• Garlic and onion are the first ingredients I'll look to if I want to add extra flavor to my vinaigrette. For fresh garlic I like to take a clove or two and make a paste using a mortar and pestle. If you don't have a mortar and pestle you can use the side of a chef's knife (don't risk getting cut on anything smaller). First, smash the cloves with the side of your knife and mince. Then you can simply put some salt on a cutting board (reduce any additional salt for the dressing in this case), place your garlic on top of that, and press down with the side of your knife, dragging the garlic against the salt, repeating until you grind it down to your liking. Roasted garlic makes this even easier as no special tools are required to squeeze or mix it into a paste


• As for onion, sometimes I like to grind it down with the garlic in a mortar and pestle. The knife technique doesn't work so well here. Otherwise I just finely mince it. I use a similar amount of onion to the garlic if not a little more


• From here, it's good as always to experiment. Citrus zests and various spices and herbs are fun to add. If you want to use juice, think about whether your using a juice that would be a good replacement for vinegar (like lemon or lime) or something sweeter that might be good to add in smaller quantities at first


• Lastly don't drown your salad! I used to always end up with a puddle at the bottom of my bowl. Like anything else it's helpful to add your dressing in small quantities, tasting until it's right

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