Ceasar Salad

12 Roman lettuce leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
150 ml Olive oil
250 gr Parmesan
The Juice of 1 lemon
10 ml of Worcestershire sauce
1 Egg
4 Croutons
2 Anchovies

1 – Macerate the peeled and diced garlic in 75 ml of olive oil, if possible an hour (or even better the night before)

2- In a salad bowl put the lettuce leaves, salt and pepper, add the extra virgin olive oil and the macerated garlic oil (without the garlic)

3- Cook the egg only one minute in boiling water and immediately after rest it in iced water.*

4- Add the egg, parmesan, lemon juice and worcestershire sauce to the salad bowl and mix all the ingredients until the ingredients are blended.

5- Add 4 croutons with the anchovies cutted in half

6- Now it’s ready!

*A temperature above 60º for 15 seconds destroys the salmonellosis bacteria, boiling the egg for a minute will allow this temperature to reach the center of the egg.

This is one of few recipes in which its origin is quite clear. It was created on the 4th of july of 1924 in Tijuana. Alex Cardini, the creators grandson and chef, explains that originally it was named the Pilot’s salad. Cardini’s grandfather was a pilot in the World War II and later retired to open a restaurant at the Caesars Palace hotel in Tijuana. During the prohibition years, many people in the US used to cross the border to celebrate the 4th of july. That’s why on that particular day all restaurants and also Cardini’s one had runned out of food. Some pilot friends of Cardini arrived to the restaurant after hours and he had to improvise with the few ingredients they had left, and he did it on the table on front of his friends. They liked it so much that they recommended their pilots friends and that is how little by little it became the hit that it is today.

You can see a video explaining this here

Lettuce is so easy to grow as it adapts perfectly to different climates, it also has a lot of nutritional properties and both of those reasons are why it is a staple food around the world.

And if you are thinking of growing your own organic garden, lettuce can be a good start. That is why Franca Roiatti chosed its name for her book published by SlowFood The lettuce revolution a book that explores the universe of urban organic gardens as a way to fight for food-sovereignty as a response of the economic, social and climate crisis.

The ceasar salad is the most famous salad of the world and you can find many different recipes. As a low-carb food and full of proteins meal it is especially recommended in diets. Lettuce has a lot of water and fiber, it has antioxidants and minerals.

This meal can be also eaten by lactose intolerants as parmesan is an aged cheese it looses the lactose, and it has a lot of protein! 32,5 gr in each 100 gr.