Copycat Olive Garden Dressing Recipe

We're not going to dance around it; it's very cool to hate on Olive Garden. Outside of a sanguine review from the Grand Forks Herald, the only thing anyone not in Grand Forks will say positively about Olive Garden is the salad. We're not here to judge, nor dwell on the negative, but rather give credit where credit is due; Olive Garden's Signature Italian dressing is great. And the best part about it is you can make it at home, with a few simple steps you probably didn't see coming.  

This delectable starter dish wows the Olive Garden crowd. What is that tasty sauce they put on their never ending salad?  It's Italian, but Olive Garden gives it a twist that brings that tart, smooth flavor which makes even the staunchest OG snob admit defeat.

As you can see, there are some flakes of spice — parsley and some Italian stuff, and the overall texture looks Italian, but the taste is closer to a creamy Italian. Let's break down the ingredients and figure out what we need and don't need to get this rolling.  

As a seasoned vet, you know that distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, salt, egg is just mayonnaise. Or is it Miracle Whip? And what's the difference? Here's a real quick lesson on mayo vs. Miracle Whip.  Kraft's 1933 invention has less than 65 percent oil in it — which the FDA therefore doesn't classify as a mayonnaise. If you look at the ingredients of the Olive Garden Signature Italian dressing, it errs on the "not mayonnaise" side. So it's Miracle Whip, right?

Would you believe neither? Mayonnaise has both mustard and lemon juice in it, and Miracle Whip has a bunch of spices. Olive Garden has none of those in their dressing. That means in order to get this right, we have to create an amateur cooks worst fear — homemade mayonnaise. Bear with me. This won't be as painful as you think.

You may have noticed that a preponderance of recipes include garlic powder. It's basically a subtle binder; you don't taste garlic but if it's not present there's something missing that you can't put your finger on. Garlic powder is just dehydrated garlic, and in many dishes where fresh garlic is too overpowering, it's the perfect ingredient. We only need a half teaspoon of garlic powder; that'll be plenty.

There needs to be some sweetness to this. Olive Garden uses high fructose corn syrup — also known as the most evil ingredient ever. A nice, simple corn syrup, the kind you might use when making a pie, will work here. The syrupy form will mix better than sugar, and give the final product a smoother taste. We're not making a dessert, so just a half teaspoon will suffice.  

Here we go again with Xanthan gum. Do we really need it? There are two schools of thought. No, you don't really need it, because you don't really need this to bind anymore than it will naturally. But yes, you do need it because without it the sauce is a bit runny. If you have it, drop in a an eighth teaspoon. If you don't, don't sweat it.

Remember that part right up there about oil and vinegar? Well, here's the vinegar. A lot of traditional Italian dressings will use red wine vinegar or something a bit more fancy, but there's nothing traditional about Olive Garden. Just go with a distilled white vinegar. A quarter cup will bring the tang.

It's time to bring everything together! Take a half tablespoon of the homemade "mayo-like product" and combine it with light oil, white vinegar, tarragon vinegar, Italian seasoning, parsley, corn syrup (or sugar), salt, black pepper, dry Romano cheese, xanthan gum, and garlic powder. Whisk the living daylights out of that and then transfer it to something you can shake up — like a salad dressing dispenser — and shake it all about.  

Grab your favorite salad — Olive Garden's is lettuce, red onion, carrots, and tomatoes, along with croutons and pepperoncinis — and apply your dressing. This took a few tries, but we are very close.  The first version didn't have the tarragon and it's still close without it, but the tarragon really brought this in right at it. The other helpful ingredient was the homemade mayo — the regular mayo gave it more of a kick that's not there in the Olive Garden version.