Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Satisfying a craving
--Creamy Italian Dressing



Creamy Italian Dressing
Pillsbury Complete Cook Book Copyright 2000, 2006

1/2 cup olive oil I used canola oil
1/2 cup mayonnaise leave this out if you don't want a creamy dressing
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar I used rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 tablespoon chopped pimiento, drained
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, halved
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves or Italian seasoniong
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. In jar with tight-fitting lid, combine all ingredients; shake well. Refrigerate at least 2 hours to blend flavors.
2. Before serving, remove garlic; shake well. Store in tightly covered container in refrigerator.
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I had a hankering for a creamy Italian dressing. I worked for a catering place in high school that served creamy Italian dressing almost every party. This recipe produced a much thinner dressing than the one we used to serve, which is nice. With a thinner dressing, you don't end up using as much.

This is the only recipe I made last night. I free-styled some turkey meatballs and simmered them in jarred (yes, jarred) sauce. I couldn't get Alessio's so I used another somewhat local company, DelGrosso's Tomato and Basil sauce, and it was delicious. Along with some garlic bread made from homemade Italian Bread that I had in the freezer, it was a very nice dinner, with plenty leftover which I divided up into future lunches.

Expect things to get very simplistic around here. It's my goal to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible right now. I may change my mind tomorrow but right now, there's just too much else to do.

Blast From The Past: Light Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs from last month. That recipe for spaghetti and turkey meatballs was very good but I think the fast version I made last night was just as good, maybe even better, probably because I made meatballs the night before and they simmered in the sauce longer than the America's Test Kitchen recipe.

Question of the Day: Do you buy jarred pasta sauce? What brand?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to but the jarred sauce seems to give me terrible heartburn and my homemade sauce doesn't. Plus my family loves the homemade much better. I make it thinner with canned tomatoes and tomato sauce but no tomato paste. I think the paste is what bothers me.

Was it here that I read to put a few chopped prunes in the sauce? Well, I did that and it was delicious. I also put some black olives to disguise the prune bits and my guys practically licked their plates!

This Creamy Italian dressing looks wonderful. I might have to make a batch. DH thinks Ranch is the ONLY dressing there is! LOL

Heather said...

I use jarred sauce most often. I usually pick up some flavor of Ragu and then add veggies to it. However, I hate traditional Ragu.
I have only made my own sauce a couple of time. Mostly when I have time on a Sunday and the tomatoes are fresh.

Unknown said...

I don't really like jarred pasta sauce but if I do use it, I use Prego. Ragu is too sweet.

Red Dirt Mummy said...

Nope, no jarred sauces here. Hubby tends to find them too rich and his tummy (and ulcer!) play up for days afterwards. Of course, sometimes my cooking is too rich for him as well but he just has to shut up and suffer then! LOL.

DancesInGarden said...

Tomato sauce or "passata" (ground tomatoes) yes, pasta sauce NO. I don't like the spices they put in there. Growing up we did, and we bought name brands from the US. When you buy the same brands in Canada the herbs and spices are different and they taste disgusting.

I prefer to flavour my own.

MommyProf said...

Lots of it. Classico or Paul Newman for us.