Inspiration for a Grilling Experiment

Grilled Caesar Salad at Joey's Pasta House

If it were up to my husband, the only thing that would be cooked on our grill would be meat. Vegetables might be allowed if they were skewered on a kabob, but that’s about his limit. Whenever I mosey out to the grill with something that he thinks doesn’t belong there, I can see his eyes start to roll to the back of his head.

I’ll admit he has his reasons. There was the appetizer that was grilled on a cedar plank, which was engulfed in flames when he went to take it off the grill. (It made for an amusing start to a dinner party, though, and it was so delicious that we were practically licking the blackened board.) And my attempts at grilling pizza have been less than successful — the most recent attempt resulted in a scorched outer layer and gooey uncooked dough inside. (The magazine articles make it sound so easy.)

A recent dinner at Joey’s Pasta House in Penfield might send me back out to the grill for another one of my experiments. I ordered the grilled shrimp Caesar salad, in which the shrimp, romaine lettuce and bread all took a trip to the grill. The char of the grill added an appealing change of pace to a salad I’ve had many times. I have a favorite recipe for chicken Caesar salad (from the Cooks Illustrated book, The Best Light Recipe.) It doesn’t seem hard to switch to shrimp and throw some romaine wedges on the grill. I can hear my husband groaning already.

Note: This also appears on my blog on the Flavors of Rochester website.