Just about everybody (you included), if you’ll take the time to really remember and then be absolutely honest about it, have certain foods you enjoyed as a kid that seem to be indelibly etched into your memory. (There’s probably some 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 foods in my own culinary world, as strange as it may seem, was the bright red bottle of (probably Kraft back in the day) Catalina salad dressing – tomatoey, slightly sweet, though dominated by a burst of mouth-puckering acidity.
I have no idea why that flavor combination resonated so persistently for me; we weren’t big salad eaters in my early childhood, though I do seem to recall the family or friends occasionally shaking up a version which seems to have been based on a can of tomato soup…
No one in my own family seems to have adopted my taste for this dressing; despite their disinterest I’ve kept an eye out for a recipe to make it consistently at home, with the same tang and rich tomatoey goodness that I’ve held out as the ideal from days gone past.
This recipe nails it, and takes all of about 3 minutes to spin together. Hot damn, pass the salad bowl back down this way…
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion or 1 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup sugar (or less)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 cup oil
salt and pepper to taste
This one couldn’t be easier; pour or measure all ingredients except the oil into your trusty blender. With the blender running on low speed, once the ingredients have spun for 30 seconds, dribble in the oil until well emulsified. Keeps a week if you used onion powder, 3-4 days if chopped onion.
Enjoy.
