Raspberrry Balsamic Vinaigrette

I really like salad, but I hate always having the same dressing on it all the time. I guess I just like a little variety in my life. Hey, who doesn't? I used to go back and forth between store-bought Italian and a homemade balsamic and oil mix. But then I started getting bored with that and came up with my creamy garlic dressing. I like that pretty well and have moved it into the rotation. I also really like Caesar dressing, but finding a decent bottled version is like trying to find jars of gold for sale at the grocery store. So, I finally had to figure out how to make my own.

I like the creamy dressings, but I recently decided that it was time to broaden my vinaigrette making skills. I was inspire by a great dressing I had over the holiday (which I'll post here soon as well). The basis for today's dressing was in a magazine somewhere, but I didn't like the proportion of ingredients at all, so I made some changes.

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
Yield: about 1/2 cup of dressing

3 TBS seedless (or nearly) raspberry jam*
2 TBS balsamic vinegar
3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper

Whisk all ingredients together and store, covered, in the refrigerator up to one week. Dressing needs to come to room temperature before using. If in a hurry, place the dressing in the microwave in 5 second intervals until it loosens up.

*NOTE: I used my homemade raspberry freezer jam for this recipe. I think it is much better than making it with cooked jam, which has a very different flavor and color, but cooked jam is probably better than no jam! Another option is to get a bag of frozen raspberries, let them thaw, crush them, run them through a sieve to remove most of the seeds, and mix with a bunch of sugar (maybe a one to one ratio of raspberry puree to sugar). You can then store this syrup in the refrigerator or freezer to use in making this dressing whenever the urge hits you.