Farmer's Market Caesar Salad

Since all the salads of New England have passed under my knife and into my salad bowl, (except for clam salad, which still remains lonely and uncooked, surrounded by recipes bearing dates, splotches and smears,) I decided that it made more sense to go to a salad recipe in another part of the cookbook than be a purist and stick with New England. The Farmers Market in this recipe refers to the Los Angeles Farmers Market.

One does not have to go through all the folderol of combining oil and garlic, removing the garlic and adding each ingredient to the lettuce,l tossing and moving on to the next ingredient. You can just make the dressing in a jar and pour it over the lettuce before serving. Your kitchen is not, after all, The Palm or some other hoity-toity French restaurant of 1965 where the coolest thing the chef did was make Caesar Salad. Dice the garlic as fine as possible for God's sake, and keep it in the dressing. Also, nowadays, one can buy perfectly acceptable croutons. You do not have to make your own, and I don't think much is gained by doing it yourself.

Farmers Market Caesar Salad

3/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed (diced, diced!)

1 cup stale French bread cubes

3 heads romaine lettuce, washed and dried.
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 egg cooked for one minute in boiling water
1 large lemon halved
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
8 anchovy fillets chopped
1/3 freshly grated Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese

1. Day before, combine the oil and garlic and let stand overnight.
2. Next day, remove garlic and discard. Heat one=quarter cup of the oil in a skillet and brown the bread cubes in it on all sides. Drain and reserve.
3. Place the lettuce in a salad bowl. Add the remaining oil, salt and pepper and toss. Break and add the contents of the eff. Toss again.
4. Squeeze the lemon halves over the salad. Add the Worcestershire, anchovies and cheese. Toss. Add the bread cubes and toss again. Makes 8 to 10 servings.