Hi friends,
This week, I’m sharing two complementary dishes to enjoy in the summer sun.
The first is a weeknight-friendly Caesar salad featuring a garlicky homemade dressing and crunchy croutons. Daniel and I spent about a year tweaking the dressing to our liking, so you know it's good! The original recipe calls for kale, but it works perfectly well with more seasonal greens, like Swiss chard, or a mix of heartier lettuces.
The second is my cold-fermented pizza dough. We’ve hosted countless pizza parties with this dough! You can prepare your toppings in advance (cheese, sauce, veggies, meats) and have guests assemble their own pizza. It’s a really fun and interactive event. If you’re feeling ambitious, I recommend serving the aforementioned Caesar salad alongside slices of cheesy pizza :)
Enjoy!
Weeknight Dinner: Caesar Salad with Homemade Dressing
After countless tests, we've perfected our Caesar salad with creamy homemade dressing. Bites of hearty greens, homemade croutons, and a punchy salad dressing intermingle in this extra-special recipe.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
If you know anything about me, you know I love punchy, bold flavors, and this salad is no exception!
Here, we took the traditional Caesar salad and amped up the flavors, pairing earthy, slightly bitter kale with a garlicky, lemony dressing.
A mayo-based dressing eliminates the headache and stress of making the dressing entirely from scratch. There's no emulsion or raw egg yolks needed.
Homemade croutons are crispy and crunchy, adding a fun texture to the salad.
Substitutions
The original recipe calls for kale, but any assortment of greens like Swiss chard or heartier, crisp lettuces will work well! Avoid softer lettuce (i.e., butter lettuce), as it won’t be able to stand up to a punchier dressing. I haven’t tried it myself, but I’d imagine this might be delicious with Napa cabbage, too.
Grab the full recipe below. ↓
Weekend Project: Cold-Fermented Pizza Dough
My go-to 72-hour pizza dough recipe uses a slow, cold fermentation method to yield a flavorful dough with a chewy, crispy crust. Plus, it's easy enough to use for both home ovens and outdoor pizza ovens.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Slow fermentation equals better flavor: It's all about the long fermentation time here. Allowing the dough to sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours improves the flavor and texture of the pizza.
It's highly flexible: This recipe works with different flours and times in the fridge, from 24 hours to 72 hours. Use it to your advantage to play around and experiment and see what you like best.
Note: This pizza dough recipe is for intermediate pizza bakers (that is, you’ve made pizza at least a few times and are familiar with kneading, balling, and hand-stretching your dough). For beginner pizza bakers, I recommend Roberta’s Pizza Dough recipe from NYT Cooking.
Get the full recipe below. ↓
That’s all for this week!
-Karishma