Homemade Italian Salad Dressing

“Excellent dressing! I used red wine vinegar and added 1/4 t cayenne pepper to add a little zing. We really loved this and it is a lot cheaper than buying off the shelf. Thanks Darlene.”

“You’ve got my vote, as well!!Definitely a 5-star winner!Very easy to mix up and has a delightful taste.So nice to have GOOD Italian on hand.Thanks a million for posting, Darlene.Laudee C.”

“This is the best homemade Italian dressing I have tried to date, mainly becuase the ingredients do not “separate” as quickly as other recipes. I omitted the salt (doctor told me I have to cut back on sodium) and I added 2 tsp. of very finely minced fresh red peppers. My first use for this dressing was to use it to make Marianne’s Marinated Vegetables (recipe ID# 21606)”

“Liked this very much.Used raspberry wine vinegar.I also added a dash of pepper.Will use this often.”

“I made two versions of this, one with red wine vinegar and one with white wine vinegar. Both are excellent and used often by my family. Fresh tasting and very zesty. Thanks Darlene, for a great recipe.”

“This is great dressing!I also used red wine vinegar and I used canola oil, because I wasn’t sure what salad oil was.It turned out great, wasn’t to strong or sour.I am going to try it in my pasta salads, as I am very picky on the dressing that I use in it and I think that I can cut out almost $7 off of my bill for pasta salad.Thanks again and I will definately be making this often.”

“Really tasty exactly as written, but I appreciated even more that it could be so successfully tweaked to suit our personal preferences.We’re partial to ‘zesty’ Italian, so I added a little cayenne and black pepper for extra zing.Also, I increased the sugar slightly (maybe 1/4 tsp).It was just the tiniest bit too ‘sharp’ for our tastes, and that took the edge off without making it actually taste sweet.This was served over mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and pepperoncini, with a generous grating of Parmesan on top.Everyone agreed it was as good as the salad at our favorite Italian restaurant — and it was a heckuva lot cheaper.Looking forward to trying this with different types of vinegar and oil to find the perfect combination!”

“I will never buy Italian Dressing again.I had to use veg. oil since I was out of Olive oil and salad oil.It was still great.I also used red wine vinegar and the 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.Absolutely wonderful.Thanks Darlene.”

“Really good recipe. I substituted a packet of sugar substitute for the sugar and used red wine vinegar. Also added an extra clove of garlic to ward off any vampires. Yum!”

“A lovely dressing. And so easy to make!! This is definitely a stayer. Thanks!”

“Sorry but this did not work for me. I needed italian dressing for a pasta salad I was making and didn’t have any in the house. I followed the recipe as written using EVOO and red wine vinegar. I made the dressing and thought it tasted oily but thought I would let it sit. It sat for four hours but still didn’t have any flavor other then the oily taste. I went back over the recipe thinking I did something wrong but I followed the recipe to a t. I had never made italian dressing before so wasn’t sure what it needed to “fix” it so I just threw it away.”

“Made this for Fathers Day Italian Dinner and I did follow a few others and added some red pepper flakes and used a mix of EVOO & Canola oil.Excellent before the chill down and I know it will just improve with time!Thanks Darlene for an awesome recipe!I chose this one as it had no cheese or egg in it for my DDIL (who is a PKU sufferer).”

“Sorry, I just didn’t think this was good. It was extremely oily and also bland. The ratio is way off.”

“Nice, but I would rather have a 1:1 ratio of vinegar to oil.I also added some basil.Nice though!Thanks!Will be perfect on a green salad this evening.”

“This was pretty good. A bit too oily, and I would add pepper and parsley next time. Thank you.”

“I whipped this one up real quick as I needed Italian dressing for another recipe and found I did not have any. I made as written except I did not have any paprika. Really good and not too oily.”

“Refreshing salad dressing.Was worried it would be too oily like other reviews said but I can say that the ratio was just superb.I used red wine vinegar and I also halved the recipe and there was enough for 4 servings.Will make again!”

“Awesome recipe. So worth the extra effort vs. store bought. We halved the recipe and we found it was still enough for 4 servings. Refridgerated the rest for our next meal.Update; I keep coming back to this recipe and thoroughly enjoy it each & every time.Thanks for sharing, Darlene.”

“I wanted to like this, but just didn’t. The oil ratio was too high. I added more sugar, more garlic, more vinegar, some lemon juice… and then it was much more to my liking. At no point did the flavor resemble store-bought Italian dressing, which is much sweeter (with corn syrup) and more balanced.”

“Used EVOO and red wine vinegar. Still seemed like it was missing something but when I added some onion powder and lemon juice, it was perfect.It does seperate in the fridge but that’s because there’s no emulsifiers or other preservatives…so I feel better about letting my family use it.”