Vinaigrette salad dressing

A vinaigrette is simply an emulsion of an oil – soybean, olive, rapeseed for example with a vinegar – wine (red or white), cider whatever. Each combination has a different flavour and mouthfeel so feel free to experiment from this starting point.

• 120 ml (4 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil
• 35 ml (2 tbsp) white/red wine vinegar or cider vinegar – just not the malt vinegar
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard (Dijon if you must….)
• salt and pepper

Put the olive oil, mustard and vinegar into a screw top jar and shake. After the first shaking taste it and balance the taste to what you are serving it with – if you are drizzling over sweet tomatoes a touch more vinegar and some salt might be required.

The advantage of the jar method is that you could make as little or as much as you would like. If you are making a lot you could use a stick blender. Eventually the emulsion will seperate out but really it only needs to stay together as long as you need to eat the salad doesn’t it. It is worth drying leaves before dressing as the dressing coats the leaves better. I funnel the finished dressing into a prettier bottle so it looks slightly better on the table.

See also mayonnaise.