This recipe is inspired by the creamy balsamic dressing at one of my favorite Austin eateries- Pieous Pizza. Great name for a pizza joint, huh? If you ever find yourself in this area of the country, make Pieous one of your top priorities. They make true Neapolitan pizza, and having had my share of Neapolitan pizza in Italy, I can say with 100% confidence that Pieous’s pizza is just as good- if not BETTER- than the places I’ve eaten in Italy. This pregnancy has been super weird for me in terms of what I do or do not want to eat, and unfortunately garlic is on the list of things that completely disgust me. Not too convenient for a food blogger, if you ask me! This aversion has also led me to not like… pizza. I know, right? It’s blasphemy. It’s so sad. But I’m 9 months pregnant as of today and I can get through this, WITH OUR WITHOUT PIZZA. So when my in-laws hosted a Christmas gift exchange last weekend and ordered Pieous, I stuck mainly to the mixed salad with creamy balsamic dressing. And I had two three ok fine four helpings of it. I couldn’t get enough. I knew I needed to recreate this masterpiece at home as soon as humanly possible. The salad at Pieous is simple- mixed greens, fresh in-house made mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes. It’s the perfect simple combination to showcase this salad dressing. Since it’s red, green, and white, it’s also the perfect thing to make for Christmas meals. I plan on making this again on Christmas eve for my family, with mushroom risotto. Yummmm. Since I’ve been craving sweet flavors, I added a bit of pure maple syrup to a mixture of balsamic vinegar, mayo, EVOO, salt, and pepper. Since balsamic vinegar is also naturally sweet, it complemented it nicely. The mayonnaise helps emulsify the dressing making it perfectly smooth and helping it to not separate. If you don’t want to use mayonnaise, you can also use Greek yogurt (or a vegan mayo, if that’s your thing!). Raise your hand if you want to eat more salads in 2017! A lot of you probably do. Since a salad is only as good as its dressing, I recommend making a big ol’ batch of this to store in your fridge. One of the greatest things about this salad dressing is that you can make it in bulk and store it in your fridge without the consistency changing too much. With olive oil dressings, if you refrigerate them you often end up with a more chunky consistency since the oil hardens at the colder temperature. Because this recipe is mayo-based and so well emulsified, it will keep wonderfully for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Finally, I have one more recommendation: balsamic vinegar can either be expensive or relatively cheap. Don’t use the pricey stuff for this- since you’re mixing it with so many other things anyway, you don’t need the high quality stuff for this to taste delicious. Put this dressing on Apple Coleslaw, Caprese Pasta Salad, or Mixed Greens Salad with Cranberries and Goat Cheese. Recipe for Creamy Maple Balsamic Dressing below- enjoy!
