I’d venture that if you’re like most of us, if you’ll take the time to truly remember and be absolutely honest about it, you’ll have certain foods that graced your childhood table that seem to be indelibly etched into your memory. (There’s some genuine physiology at play there – taste is critically dependent upon the sense of smell, and certain smells are often tightly bound to unique memories…).
One of those remembered foods for me, as strange as it might seem, was the bright red bottle of Catalina salad dressing, probably a Kraft product and no doubt made in part with the cheapest seed oil available on the market at the time. The dressing was tomatoey, slightly sweet, and dominated by a burst of mouth-puckering acidity.
To be honest, I have no idea why that particular flavor combination resonated so persistently for me; we in reality weren’t big salad eaters in my early childhood. I do seem to recall the family or friends occasionally shaking up a version (in a mason or mayonnaise jar of course) which was based on a can of tomato soup.
Especially while our kids were still at home, no one in my own family adopted my taste for this dressing; despite their disinterest I’ve kept an eye out for a recipe with the same tang and rich tomatoey goodness that I’ve held out as the ideal from days gone past.
We’ve revisited several recipes for Homemade Catalina Dressing over the years, most of which were close but not the one I was looking for. This one is probably the closest I found, and is based on the unsweetened version of the ketchup posted a week ago.
There’s a nice burst of acidity from the red wine vinegar, and of course the spices can be dialed up to suit you. It keeps a bit longer if you use the onion powder by the way, and allows you to shake it up in a jar just like your Mom may have done back in the day.
Two other notes; one, as with just about every recipe we post, adding a small amount of the sweetener of your choice is optional. As our palate has changed over the past few years, we do without and relish the other flavors. And two, using a full-flavored, good extra virgin olive oil here can overpower the tomato flavors – I like to use avocado oil for half or two thirds of the oil…
1/3 c Older Bolder Ketchup No. 1
1/3 c red wine vinegar
1/2-1 tsp onion powder or 1/4 c finely chopped onion
1/2-1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2/3 c oil of choice
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: honey/maple syrup to taste (start with just a tsp!)
This one couldn’t be easier. Combine all ingredients in your trusty blender, a jar, or a bowl. Then blend / shake / whisk until combine and emulsified. Adjust seasonings and mix one final time. Keeps in the fridge (note comment about the onion flavor above) for at least a week.
Enjoy.
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