Italian Salad

This is a great salad to serve with a pizza.  I made this salad for friends when we ordered pizza.  It is supposed to serve 4 – 6 people, but the 3 of us ate it all.  Yeah, it was that good.  Making that creamy Italian dressing really takes it up a notch!

 Ingredients:

Dressing: 

• 1 C. mayonnaise
• ¼ C. milk or half and half
• ¼ C. red wine or balsamic vinegar
• ½ t. of sugar
• 1 envelope of Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix

Salad:

• 1 lb. Italian blend salad mix or romaine lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
• 1 (5 oz.) jar of small stuffed green olives
• 2 oz. pepperoni slices, cut in half
• 1 (12 oz.) jar of sweet pepper rings, cut in pieces
• 1 C. Italian blend cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Make the dressing combining all of the ingredients by whisking until fully incorporated.
2. When you are ready to serve the salad, combine the salad ingredients and pour ¾ C. of the dressing over the salad and toss. 
3. Serve immediately.

Tips and Tricks:

• I use an immersion blender to incorporate the dressing ingredients.  It works better and faster than whisking.
• You can use any lettuce you like for this salad but I have tried it with iceberg and I don’t think it tasted as good.
• If you can't find Italian blend cheese, just use 3/4 C. mozzarella and 1/4 C. Romano or Parmesan.