Grilled Caesar Salad

A fresh salad is always nice for dinner especially when the grill is involved. Although grilled caesar salads are quite common and popular now, this one focuses on one oft overlooked component  – Anchovies. It is the use of the oil from the anchovy tin which gives this salad it special punch, while not actually overwhelming the salad itself.

Ingredients

• Romaine lettuce heart
• 1 can of anchovies (flat, not rolled)
• Olive oil
• Coarse ground black pepper
• Good parmesan cheese, shredded
• Salt

Slice the romaine heart in two, lengthwise. Remove any bad leaves. Trim the stem end to removed as much of the stem as possible, but not so much as to separate the leaves, which need to remain together.

Take the olive oil, and spread it evenly along the non-cut side of the split heart. Salt and pepper the back side. Flip the heart over. Open the tin of anchovies, and begin pouring the anchovy oil over the cut part of the hearts, so that it seeps in between the leaves. Salt and pepper the cut side.

Prepare an asymmetrical heated grill, with one side warmer than the other. When the grill is ready, arrange the romaine hearts, leaf side down, on the grill with the stem end toward the hottest part of the grill. Grill until the leaves have some grill marks. Then flip the hearts over and grill on the cut side, again, until the grill leaves it mark.

Transfer immediately to a salad plate and arrange the whole anchovies over the top. Top with grated or shredded parmesan cheese, and serve.