Italian dressing

Italian dressing

A dish of Italian dressing
Origin
Place of origin	United States
Details
Type	Salad dressing or marinade
Main ingredient(s)	Water, vinegar or lemon juice, vegetable oil, bell peppers, sugar or corn syrup, herbs and spices
Variations	Creamy Italian

Italian dressing is a vinaigrette-type of salad dressing in United States and Canadian cuisine, consisting of water, vinegar or lemon juice, vegetable oil, chopped bell peppers, usually sugar or corn syrup, and a blend of numerous herbs and spices including oregano, fennel, dill and salt. Onion and garlic can also be used to intensify the dressing’s flavor. It is often bought bottled, or prepared by mixing oil and vinegar with a packaged flavoring mix consisting of dehydrated vegetables and herbs.

North American style Italian dressing is thought to date back to 1948, in Kansas City, MO. There, an Italian-American G.I. named Phillip Sollomi started serving his mother’s homemade dressing at his family-style chicken restaurant. "The Wish-Bone Restaurant" is a thing of the past, but Mrs. Sollomi’s Wish-Bone Italian Dressing is the number one Italian dressing in America to this day. In recent years Wish-Bone changed their recipe/formula; it is no longer the dressing Mrs. Sollomi made famous.

North American-style Italian dressing is not used in Italy, where salad is normally dressed with olive oil, vinegar, salt, and sometimes black pepper at the table, and not with a pre-mixed vinaigrette. Italian dressing is also used as a marinade for meat or vegetables, for stir-frys, and on sandwiches. Pasta salads sometimes include Italian dressing. The caloric content of Italian dressing varies widely. A variety of Italian dressing, known as creamy Italian, consists of the same ingredients, but with buttermilk or mayonnaise added to make it creamy.