This vinaigrette is excellent on greens, broccoli, cauliflower, seafood, hard-cooked eggs, and fruit salads.
Hot Pepper Vinaigrette
Recipe courtesy of Joyce Goldstein
Serves Makes 1 1/3 cups
Ingredients:
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons dried red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, or 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Preparation:
- Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan until quite hot but not boiling. Drop in a pepper flake; if the flake skips on top of the oil and doesn’t burn or sink, add the rest of the pepper flakes and remove from the heat. Let the pepper flakes steep in the oil about 30 minutes, then strain and let cool. This is called olio santo, or hot pepper oil.
- Whisk the hot pepper oil and lemon juice together in a mixing bowl. Whisk in the garlic and season to taste with salt and pepper. You may need to add a little more olive oil if the hot oil is too hot. Pepper flakes vary wildly in degrees of hotness and so do people’s capacities to take the heat.