St. Louis Creamy Italian-Parmesan Salad Dressing

St. Louis is one of the best places to live in the country if you love to eat. We get cultural influences from Italy (the Hill), Germany (the wineries and restaurants of Hermann, Defiance and Augusta), Bosnia, Mexico (there are small yet fabulous Mexican restaurants everywhere) and the Southern US (Sweetie’s Pie’s soul food!). You probably know that we also have our own version of cheese (Provel), we like our ravioli ‘toasted’, we have the best dessert (breakfast) in Gooey Butter Cake. Of course we also have our special thin crust pizza and our own version of BBQ. You may not realize that we also have a regional salad dressing that we adore. It’s a cross between Caesar and Creamy Italian and it goes a little something like this:

Ingredients:

1/3 cup mayonnaise (light is fine)

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons anchovy paste

1 Tablespoon grated onion (with juice)

¾ cup grated parmesan cheese

2 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons garlic salt

½ teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Directions: In a large bowl, whisk together the mayo, oil, vinegar, lemon juice, anchovy paste and onion. Then slowly whisk in the cheese, sugar, garlic salt, table salt and dried oregano. Whisk for several minutes or use an immersion (hand) blender to combine all the ingredients. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. This should keep in an airtight container for about 5 days but it will never last that long around here.