How to Make Salad Dressing

Video Transcript

"All right, so the final step is we're going to dress this salad. So again--oh, that's a heavy bottle. I'm going to use the balsamic vinegar, and any vinaigrette is generally a third to a half of your acid content, whether that's a vinegar--any vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or something like a lemon juice. You want it to be anywhere from 2-to-1, a third of your quantity is going to be the vinegar, up to a half. Any more than that and it's just going to be far too vinegary. Now ordinarily, I would probably add a little bit of garlic, but it is date night so, maybe not. Then again, if both of you are eating it, you won't notice it on each other's breath. So I'm just beating that with a fork, I'm going to add a little bit of salt, not too much, because I am going to be garnishing salt, and I'll put some cracked pepper right before I serve it, right on top. You can see how just by whisking it like that emulsifies the two--the olive oil is breaking down into little bubbles. Going to lightly drizzle. I'm going to see if that needs any more before I add any extra. Add the toasted pine nuts, which are--smell really lovely... and a few more. Combine that with the tomatoes and the mixed greens. And right when I plate it, I'll show you what adds the particular restaurant touch. Rather than sort of, taking my parmesan and grating it in, or shaking it in if I bought it already pre-grated, I'm going to take this tool and make parmesan curls right on top of it. This is parmigiano-reggiano that I'm using, so a really good cheese. And you really have to sort of press into it to get it to work, but it's totally worth it, don't you think? I'm going to garnish it with these pretty curls on each plate, and that's the salad."