Add One Ingredient For A Creamy Spin On Store-Bought Italian Dressing

Store-bought Italian dressing is perfect for drizzling over salads and using as a perky marinade for meats. You can even substitute compound butter with Italian dressing to make aromatic garlic bread. However, you might occasionally want all the classic flavors of an Italian dressing, such as fragrant garlic, warm oregano, and zesty lemon, in a creamier consistency so it remains emulsified and can cling better to greens and potato salad. For a creamy spin on store-bought Italian dressing, consider combining it with a couple of dollops of mayonnaise — like this classic Hellmann's Mayo — to make a thicker, richer coating for coleslaw and tuna salad, or a lively spread to slather on grilled cheese and hoagies.

While you could bind your Italian dressing with other common emulsifiers, such as mustard, honey, or tahini, these ingredients bring their own assertive qualities to the table, such as heat, sweetness, and nuttiness, which could overpower the herby, garlicky character of your Italian vinaigrette. Mayo, on the other hand, is a mellow-flavored surfactant that creates a bond between the oil and vinegar in a standard Italian dressing, keeping it stable and creamy for longer without overpowering its personality. It creates a smooth dressing with heaps of body that dampens down the tartness of the vinegar. Plus, there's likely a jar of the good stuff sitting in your fridge, ready to transform your store-bought vinaigrette into a luscious dip for a plate of crudité. All you need to do is incorporate a splash of dressing into some mayo and stir.

Creamy versions of Italian style dressing are available at the grocery store, however, customizing a regular bottle (comprised of vinegar, oil, and seasonings) gives you heaps of bandwidth to play around with consistency and flavor. Plus, you can make as much or as little as you like when you need it rather than filling your fridge with several bottles of different dressings. Simply add more mayo for a thicker dressing that's ideal for stirring through cooked chopped taters to make a garlicky, French-style potato salad with a diluted tang. 

Alternatively, use a dash more vinaigrette for a looser dressing that's still creamy but doesn't taste heavy on a jumble of salad leaves, grilled chicken, and croutons. A richer Italian dressing won't pool at the bottom of your bowl either unlike thinner types of vinaigrette, which can collect at the base of your container — stir it through some cooked farfalle and veggies to make a low-effort pasta salad and it'll cling to the noodles so every bite is full of flavor. Better yet, any leftover dressing will make a punchy binder for meatballs and burger blends (just adjust the seasonings in your recipe to account for the salt in your dressing).