Restaurant Inspirations: Salad Dressing

I love a good ranch salad dressing.  And a good ranch salad dressing rarely comes from a bottle in the dressings and condiments aisle of the grocery store.

Here are some places where you can find really good ranch salad dressing: by making it at home with a packet of ranch seasoning, at the BYU Creamery (dang that stuff is good), at a restaurant, and by making it from scratch.

The recipe I am sharing tonight isn't strictly ranch dressing...but it's the Italian version of it, as inspired by The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant.  I found it originally on Pinterest.  It is from a blog called "Cooking Classy" and you can find her original recipe here.

We didn't change a thing and oh my goodness, this stuff is awesome...and it tastes exactly like the dressing that you get in the actual restaurant.  Which is a great thing for me because I never have time to go out to eat these days!

So splurge a little on your next salad with this rich and creamy homemade ranch dressing, done Italian-style!

Spaghetti Factory's Creamy Pesto Salad Dressing

Makes about 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise
1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 1/2 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly, finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Whisk until smooth and creamy.  Pour into an airtight container and refrigerate 1 hour (this will help the flavors develop).  Serve over salad or use as a dip.

Source: Again, I found this on Pinterest and it is from a blog called "Cooking Classy" which you can find here.

Recipe Notes: The author of the recipe noted that if you are in a hurry and don't have time to refrigerate the dressing for an hour prior to serving, you can serve it right away, if necessary.

Notes: This dressing was great.  I ate it on salad...and then I dipped some baby carrots in it...and then we dipped some pizza and breadsticks in it.  Seriously, this stuff was awesome.