Alex Guarnaschelli's 4-Ingredient Salad Dressing Ratio Is A Weeknight Lifesaver

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Alex Guarnaschelli is an Iron Chef, restauranteur, TV personality, and cookbook author (we can't live without her book, "The Home Cook: Recipes to Know by Heart") with a no-nonsense, approachable vibe and some of our favorite everyday recipes — we've never made blueberry pie the same way again since this celeb chef filled us in on her secret. When ICAG speaks on matters of food, we listen. Our current Guarnaschelli must-have is a blueprint for the best, simplest salad dressing, which is built on a ratio rather than a recipe. This means that it is completely scalable, whether you are serving up a tiny bed of greens for two or building a scrumptious starter for a dinner party.

The ingredients you need might already be in your pantry: extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), red wine vinegar, and Dijon mustard. You'll also need cold water, but we assume you have that covered! The only thing you need to know is the magic formula: 3-2-1-1. That's three parts EVOO, two parts red wine vinegar, and one part apiece mustard and water. Whisk it up, and you have a yummy, versatile workhorse vinaigrette that's the perfect canvas for riffing upon or dishing up as-is. Use as much or as little as you prefer. As a rule of thumb, delicate greens will likely require less, while heartier leaves like kale or cabbage can stand up to a fair amount. When it comes to dressing a salad, we like to take the advice of another superstar chef, Guarnaschelli's close friend Bobby Flay, whose salad dressing hack ensures even coverage of your whole bowl.

As is the case with most recipes, the fewer the ingredients, the greater the focus on each one. Buying a high-quality olive oil will do wonders for your dressing, given its prominence in Guarnaschelli's method. Knowing the signs that you're buying real olive oil is important, and we like to reach for one with known terroir, like Atlas organic cold-pressed EVOO from Morocco. Of course, no salad dressing lives and dies by olive oil alone! You may find that you like to mix up the ingredients of this ratio, adding more red wine vinegar if you prefer a more tart bite, or even amping up the tang with additional Dijon. But why stop there? Adding a couple more ingredients to this dressing can really take it over the top.

One logical add-in would be honey. Honey is a natural complement to mustard, providing the balance of the beloved sweet-and-spicy combination. Of course, you can't talk about logical additions to a salad dressing without mentioning minced garlic or shallot, which offer piquancy and umami flair. You also can't go wrong with fresh-cracked black pepper for sharpness, lemon juice for zip, or the herbs of your choice (fresh or dried) to enliven the great flavors already present at the basis of Guarnaschelli's dressing. For the home cook who may feel nervous about playing around with a recipe, remember that salad dressings are very forgiving and that you should feel comfortable curating ingredients based on the flavor profiles that you and your loved ones enjoy.