15 mins
Super easy
serves 4
About the recipe
Here, I’ve taken all those iconic Caesar salad characteristics – zinginess, creaminess, saltiness, freshness and crunch – and reimagined it as one big beautiful sharing platter. It’s super-simple, dead tasty and perfect for if you’ve got your mates coming over (although it won’t hang around for long!).
Ingredients
8 slices of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon
100g Parmesan cheese
1 baguette
2 lemons
1 x 570g jar of white beans
1 x 50g tin anchovies in olive oil
1 clove of garlic
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
50ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
2 little gem lettuce
1 white chicory
1 red chicory
1 bunch of soft herbs (30g), such as basil, mint, chervil, tarragon, flat-leaf parsley
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
- Lay the bacon on a lined tray. Grate 40g of the Parmesan over a second lined tray, then cut the baguette into 1cm-thick slices and place on top. Put both trays in the oven for 12 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp, the cheese is melted and the baguette is golden.
- Meanwhile, finely grate the lemon zest and 40g of Parmesan into a food processor and squeeze in all the juice, then tip in the beans (juice and all) and anchovies (oil and all). Peel and add the garlic, along with the mustard and Worcestershire sauce.
- Pulse until well combined, then with the blade still spinning, slowly drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil until you have a thick and glossy dip. Season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, then set aside.
- Trim the lettuce and chicory, then click apart the leaves ready for scooping. Pick the herbs into a bowl of iced water.
- To serve, spread the Caesar dip onto a platter, then stud in the cheesy baguette slices and lettuce cups. Shatter over the crispy bacon, drain and scatter over the herbs, then finish with a final grating of Parmesan and a drizzle of oil.
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