Dressing Up

Yippie super special extra bonus recipe!  You guys are excited, we just know it.

Salad dressings are really fun to experiment with.  We love whipping up batches of vinaigrettes and lately have become fond of attempting creamy dressings.

For the anniversary dinner we offered a fig vinaigrette as well as a creamy olive and roasted garlic dressing.  We served them on just a simple tossed salad with sun dried tomatoes and shaved Parmesan cheese.

Since we didn’t actually measure anything for the vinaigrette, we’re going to feature the creamy dressing on this post (email us if you want a list of ingredients and approximate amounts, we’re happy to provide).

Creamy Olive and Roasted Garlic Dressing

Cloves from 1 head of roasted garlic (see notes on roasting)

¼ to ½ cup pitted olives (we used a mixture from our antipasto platter)

8 oz. sour cream (light or fat free work just as well as regular here)

1 Tbsp. mayonnaise

¼ cup red wine vinegar

pepper to taste

In a blender or food processor combine all of the ingredients except for the pepper.  Blend until smooth (there will be a few pieces of olives floating, that’s okay).  Season with pepper.  If you need salt you can use that too, we found that our olives were plenty salty enough to carry the dressing.

Notes:

-If you use light or fat free sour cream, you may want to add just a touch of olive oil.

-To make a thicker dressing add more sour cream or cut back on the vinegar.  To make a thinner dressing, add more vinegar (and maybe a touch of sugar to cut the extra acidity)

Roasting Garlic:

Cut just enough off the top of a full head of garlic to expose most of the cloves. 

Place head of garlic in aluminum foil, and drizzle the entire head with olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt.

Wrap and roast at 400 for 30-45 minutes.  You will know the garlic is done if you can squeeze the head and feel the cloves give.  There should also be a really nice brown color on your garlic.

When you garlic has cooled, squeeze out the cloves.