Red Wine Vinaigrette

As you all know, we love eating salads in our household. Twice daily preferably. I guess old habits die hard. A tart, yet mustardy vinaigrette is my favorite. It also happens that I get very complacent when doing my dressings and will use the same vinegars over and over. It’s quite amazing that when you change the vinegar, you get a totally different flavor, even when using the regular ingredients.

Photography by Robert Demetrius

Using a good red wine vinegar is always important. Cheap ones tend to be extremely acidic.

I like to make them in large batches as I am always giving away a bottle or two. I use an old tequila bottle that I find has an interesting shape and looks quite unusual when serving. It’s great entertaining friends as it really holds quite a lot.

For this vinaigrette I omitted garlic and no-one missed it a bit.

You need:

(Printable Recipe)

1 cup of red wine vinegar

2 cups olive oil

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

In a mixing bowl pour in 1 cup red wine vinegar and dissolve 1 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard by whisking with a fork or a whisk, then add ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Continue whisking while streaming in 2 cups olive oil until the mixture has emulsified. Then pour into your container or bottle.

This yields 3 cups. Voilà. Enjoy with any salad.