Name: Petite romaine with tarragon dressing and burrata crostini Recipe
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 teaspoon chopped garlic; Zest of 1/2 lemon; 1 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil; 1/2 cup tarragon leaves; 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar; Salt and pepper; 2 tablespoons best-quality olive oil; 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano; 6 heaping tablespoons tarragon aioli; 1 tablespoon best-quality olive oil; 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar; 1 1/2 teaspoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano; 1 1/2 teaspoons minced shallots; 3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest; 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped herbs (equal parts parsley, tarragon, dill, chive and chervil); 3 to 6 tender hearts of Romaine (5 to 7 leaves per salad); 1 baguette, sliced on the bias into one-half-inch slices (you will need 12 slices); 1/4 cup best-quality olive oil, divided; 1 pound fresh burrata cheese; 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped shallots; 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chives; Fleur de sel; Freshly ground pepper; Prepared Romaine salad

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By Noelle Carter

July 18, 2007

Caesar salad -- romaine, croutons, Parmesan, egg, anchovies, olive oil, lemon juice. Aficionados have always debated whether to include the anchovies, whether to serve the leaves whole or chopped and whether to coddle the egg -- but what about the frisee, or the tarragon, or the polenta croutons?

Lately and in L.A., some great new salads are evolving from the Caesar tradition. An intriguing tangle of frisee, radicchio and wild arugula with a bright dressing -- anchovies, olive oil, lemon juice, no egg. Or butter lettuce -- yes, butter lettuce -- topped with crisp-tender pan-fried cubes of polenta. Whole leaves of romaine with a tarragon aioli-based dressing: there’s egg but no anchovies.

At Pizzeria Mozza, the insalata tricolore from executive chef Matt Molina starts with the vivid red-green display of that frisee, radicchio and arugula topped with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. But Caesar’s influence is apparent in a light but assertive combination of lemon juice, olive oil and garlic emboldened with plenty of anchovies.

Vincenti Ristorante in Brentwood also departs from the traditional green, using butter lettuce as a strikingly different base. Pan-fried polenta cubes (crisp on the outside, deliciously tender within) garnish the salad, nestled in among strips of fresh-shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Chef Nicola Mastronardi said he wanted a salad that was more Italian than the traditional Caesar, and the warm polenta croutons do the job.

Which brings us back to tarragon.

Differently dressed

AT Opus in Koreatown, they’ve kept the classic romaine but totally reinvented the dressing.

“I’m a big fan of tarragon,” says Opus executive chef Josef Centeno. The distinctive aromatic adds another depth of flavor to the salad. Centeno’s tarragon aioli-based dressing lightly coats tender whole leaves of romaine. He’s a traditionalist on the point of whole or chopped lettuce leaves; Tijuana restaurateur Caesar Cardini’s 1920s original contained whole romaine leaves. (According to legend, it was Wallis Simpson -- mistress and later wife of Prince Edward VIII -- who popularized cutting the lettuce into manageable, bite-sized pieces.)

But Centeno’s a rebel on the dressing and accouterments front. His dressing starts as a thick tarragon aioli, which he says is also great on sandwiches. Throw in a little garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar and Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses and blend in an assortment of garden-fresh herbs, including dill, chives, chervil, parsley and tarragon. To finish the dish Opus style, spoon some creamy, seasoned burrata on warm, toasted baguette slices and serve them alongside.

It’s not as if the Caesar has had a quiet history as a salad. It almost seems as if the one constant is change. The story goes that Cardini threw the salad together from what was left in his kitchen after a bustling Fourth of July weekend. His brother Alex reportedly first inserted the anchovies (instead of Worcestershire sauce).

Guess he hadn’t thought of tarragon.