Romaine Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing

This is one of my husbands favorite salads.  I wish I could take credit for the dressing recipe, but it was all Emeril.  I found this recipe about 3 years ago and it has been a staple in my house ever since.  If you love garlic, this is for you.  The dressing is creamy, garlicky, a bit tangy...and tastes great on top of crisp romaine and shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese.  Did I mention the awesome croutons...oh yeah, those help too :)

Roasted Garlic Puree

Ingredients:
4-5 heads of garlic
olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat your oven to 325.  Cut the tops off of the garlic to expose the top of the cloves.  Drizzle the tops with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then place them cut side down on a baking sheet.  Roast about 45 minutes or until the cloves are soft and start to ooze out of the shells.  Allow to cool until you can handle them, and then squeeze the pulp into a bowl.  Mash with a fork and set aside until ready to make your dressing.


Roasted Garlic Dressing
Adapted from Emeril

Ingredients:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Garlic puree from 4-5 heads of garlic (above recipe)
1/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1/4 cup buttermilk
Juice from 1/2 large lemon
Salt
Pepper

Throw all of the dressing ingredients into a food processor or blender and mix until all ingredients are combined.  That's it.  Seriously :)


Garlic Croutons

Ingredients:
1/2 loaf of french bread, cubed
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Melt the butter.  Mix garlic, salt, and pepper into melted butter.  Add bread cubes and stir to coat.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, stirring once in the middle. 

To assemble the salad, wash and dry 2 heads of romaine lettuce, top with 1/3 cup shaved parmigiano-reggiano and garlic croutons.  You can either mix the dressing in like a Cesar salad, or serve it on the side.  I like to serve mine on the side so that everyone can put on the amount of dressing that they want.  That way you can accommodate those watching their figures :)