Tarragon Vinegar Brings Copycat Olive Garden Dressing to Life
Even if you’re not a fan of Olive Garden’s pasta, you’ll admit that the chain knows how to whip up a pretty decent salad. You can easily make a meal with this endless salad topped with some breadsticks and maybe a bowl of soup. While Olive Garden allows this as a menu option, which is a policy we wish many more restaurants would adopt, you can also recreate the experience at home with one of our homemade soup recipes such as the minestrone, Olive Garden-style pasta and fagioli, or Tuscan zuppa. If you’re a true overachiever, you can try your hand at baking OG breadsticks, but even a novice cook shouldn’t have too much trouble recreating the chain’s iconic dressing.
Olive Garden’s house dressing is Italian, which fits with the restaurant’s overall theme, but it also incorporates aspects of a Caesar dressing with its eggs and Romano cheese. According to recipe developer Jake Vigliotti, however, the one element that really makes restaurant dressing stand out and give it that je ne sais quoi (or should we say no si cosa?) is an ingredient with “almost a pickle flavor.” , but more subtle” that he assumes is tarragon vinegar. Although this herb-infused vinegar can be quite expensive, you won’t need too much to make our copycat Olive Garden vinaigrette. Vigliotti tells us that 2 “tablespoons will give it the punch we need.”
Read more: Simple Salads Everyone Should Know How to Make
How to Make a Dressing Like Olive Garden’s
In addition to tarragon vinegar, our hearty Olive Garden vinaigrette also includes much less expensive distilled white vinegar, which Vigliotti says “brings the spiciness.” Most of the dressing is a light neutral oil (OG uses soy, Vigliotti opts for safflower), while other ingredients include egg yolks, corn syrup, Italian seasoning, coffee powder. garlic, salt, pepper, Romano cheese and xanthan gum. If you don’t typically stock ingredients starting with “x” in your pantry, Vigliotti says, “Don’t worry,” because he admits that the xanthan-free dressing will be just a bit runnier than the restaurant’s version and will have more of the consistency of, well, homemade salad dressing.
Once you have assembled all the ingredients for your vinaigrette, you will begin by making a mayonnaise-like emulsion consisting of tarragon vinegar, egg yolks, corn syrup and oil. You’ll then make an oil and vinegar vinaigrette with more tarragon oil and vinegar as well as distilled vinegar and season it with dry spices and cheese. Stir in ingredient
As for homemade mayonnaise, you may have about half a cup left. Transfer it to a jar and store it in the refrigerator, but try to use it in four days or less, as that is the USDA’s recommended maximum time for homemade mayonnaise containing raw eggs.
Read the original article on Mashed.
