caesar salad with homemade croutons.

Serves 4 large salads or 8 side salads.

8 c. Romaine lettuce, washed and chopped

1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, shaved or grated

1 c. homemade croutons*

1/2 c. sun dried tomatoes, optional

anchovy fillets, optional

1/2 Recipe for Caesar Dressing

fresh ground black pepper

Wash and chop Romaine lettuce to the size of your liking.  Shave Parmesan cheese with a peeler or grate with a box grater.  A magic bullet can turn a small piece from a block of Parmesan into fine crumbs in ten seconds.  Chop sun dried tomatoes and/or anchovy fillets.  

*To make homemade croutons, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the crust off of bread of your choice.  French bread works well, but I have also made them with regular sandwich bread and they are still yummy.  Cut bread into small cubes.  For these recipe you will need one cup of cubed bread.  In a baggie (Ziploc), combine 1/4 c. olive oil, 1 t. oregano, 1/2 t. rosemary, 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper.  Place the one cup cubed bread in the baggie with the oil and spice mixture.  Shake bag to cover all pieces of bread with olive oil and spices.  Pour out onto cookie sheet.  Bake croutons for 8 to 10 minutes.  

Assemble salads- lettuce, cheese, croutons, sun dried tomatoes and anchovy fillets.  Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper.  Drizzle with caesar dressing.

xx.

val