My Wife's Italian Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Vinaigrettes are salad dressings and marinades made with vinegar and oil as a base. The classic ratio is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, but you can vary it depending on your love or distaste for vinegar and what else goes in there. And a lot of things can go in there.

It is common for vinaigrettes to get lots of herbs. Prepared mustard from the jar, not powdered, is often used as an emulsifier, sort of a glue that helps hold oil and vinegar together and keeps them from separating rapidly.

Here's is a super vinaigrette with lots of herbs, that my wife makes as a salad dressing. We also use if as a base for marinades for use on all manner of meats and veggies. For use as a marinade for ribs I make a few minor additions, explained here.

Recipe

Yield: 48 ounces.
Preparation time: 15 minutes.

Ingredients
3 cups vegetable oil (you can use olive oil, but it solidifies in the fridge)
1 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup inexpensive balsamic vinegar
8 large cloves garlic, pressed
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
3 tablespoons dried basil
3 tablespoons dried oregano

Optional. You can use roasted garlic if you wish.

Method
Pour into a bottle and shake well before using.

This page was revised 3/30/2009