Toss the salad greens with the Caesar salad dressing and divide them equally among four salad plates. Place four spears of asparagus onto each salad followed by equal amounts of the remaining ingredients. Sprinkle each salad with a little Parmesan cheese and serve immediately. Makes 4 salads.

Caesar Salad Dressing with Lemon

(Using lemon in this recipe instead of red wine vinegar and/or Worcestershire sauce lends it beautifully to pairing with white wines  )

1 cup mayonnaise

Zest from one lemon

6 tbsp. lemon juice

1 can anchovies, drained

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup salad oil

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Place the mayonnaise, lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice into a small mixing bowl. Stir to blend and set aside.

Next, place the anchovies into the pitcher of a blender. Add the garlic and the remaining lemon juice and blend to make a puree. With motor running, pour the salad oil (through the hole in the pitcher liinto the anchovy mixture in a fine, steady stream. The mixture should become fairly thick. Stop the motor and scrape the mixture down if necessary. Repeat the oil addition with the extra virgin olive oil.

Pour the anchovy/oil mixture into the mayonnaise mixture and blend together with a whisk. Add salt, pepper and the cheese and mix together until fully incorporated. Taste the dressing and correct with more lemon juice, etc. as desired. A bit of water can also be used if the flavors are nice but the dressing is too thick.

Makes about 2 ½ cups salad dressing. Keeps well when refrigerated.