Homemade Creamy Italian Dressing

Don’t reach for the bottle when homemade creamy Italian dressing is this easy to make. Throw your ingredients in a blender, blitz until well mixed, and chill in the fridge for about an hour. Shake and then serve. Your favorite restaurant taste just came home!

You don’t have to look around this blog very long to know that the tastes and flavors you’ll find on our table at home skew heavily toward my home in California.

How could they not? San Luis Obispo is a culinary paradise. The farmers’ markets are packed full of beautiful fresh produce. Our CSAs deliver boxes that look like a chef’s dream. It doesn’t take more than 10 minutes of driving to get to any of the beautiful beaches, several of which have working piers with amazing fish markets, so fresh fish is plentiful. The town started as a railroad and ranch town, and many of the original ranches are still working and producing the most amazing steaks. And the wine – don’t get me started on our vineyards. And everywhere, you see amazing farm to table restaurants, Mexican restaurants, Italian restaurants…

Man, let me stop. I’m making myself ridiculously homesick. Again. This happens a lot.

We have a wealth of amazing Italian restaurants thanks to the large Swiss-Italian population who settled in the area. I make a lot of food inspired by the beautiful things we’ve had at many of those restaurants. But one of the things I’ve glossed over for a while is the salad and dressing. Everyone thinks of them as just add-ins, but I’ve realized I really miss those as well.

A simple house salad can be the most wonderful thing, especially when you throw in fresh and tangy homemade dressing. This particular one is inspired by one of our family’s favorite restaurants, which used to be an easy walk from my folks’ house. It just closed down around the new year, but when we went home for Christmas, we were still able to take a walk down there as a family and enjoy a delicious meal.

And now that I know just how ridiculously easy and delicious this salad dressing is, there’s no reason for us to ever reach for a bottled Italian dressing again. Just throw everything into the blender, blitz, and chill in the fridge for an hour or so, and you’re ready to go.

Ready to use more? Just take the bottle out, shake it up, and you’re set!

Homemade Creamy Italian Dressing

Don’t reach for the bottle when homemade creamy Italian dressing is this easy to make. Throw your ingredients in a blender, blitz until well mixed, and chill in the fridge for about an hour. Shake and then serve!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Chill time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course Salad

Cuisine Italian

Servings 2 cups

Ingredients

  

• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp Parmesan cheese grated
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/8 tsp dried oregano
• 1/8 tsp dried parsley
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes crushed
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Process all the ingredients in your blender until the mix is well combined and the red pepper flakes are just tiny specks.
• Chill for an hour before serving with your favorite salad!

Keyword dressing, italian

Everyone in the family enjoyed this one. And my husband went back for more of the very simple salad – romaine and croutons and Parmesan cheese – that we paired with it just so he could have more of the dressing. He’s usually particular about his dressing, so I consider it a win.

How about you guys? What are the tastes that flavor your home table?

Did you make this recipe? Tag @homefrontcooking or use #homefrontrecipes on Instagram!