Caesar Salad

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 4; Recipe 6

Reasons for making a caesar salad tonight:  only had to buy two ingredients that i didn't already have, had to use up the rest of the baguette we ate with our spring pea soup, and needed to finish the leftover spring pea soup.  So we paired our leftover soup and bread with this salad.  The bread became croutons and tasted good despite the bread being two days old rather than the called-for one day old.  The dressing came together really well but had a sharp bite to it, which we are attributing to the garlic.  See, the garlic was supposed to be pounded to a puree, but that didn't happen, as i do not have a mortar and pestle and i wasn't creative enough to figure out a workable alternative.  So i minced the garlic, then tried to smash it to a pulp with passable but not great results.  This is the second recipe in which a mortar and pestle is called for, ever-so-casually, mid-recipe, without ever using the term.  It seems I need to get one.  Anyway, my point is the dressing had bite, but maybe it would not have if i had adequately pounded the garlic.  The recipe also calls for anchovy fillets packed in salt.  I tried three stores, none of which carried them packed in salt.  So, with no option, i had to get anchovies packed in oil, which irked me probably much more than it should have.  Still, the salad came together well, was tasty, Paul thought it was of restaurant quality, but really should be treated as an appetizer.  Would be good before pasta, but underwhelming (meal-wise) paired with a low-calorie soup.