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Salad dressing is one of the easiest homemade things you can make, and trust me on this - once you start you'll never bother with bottled dressing again.

The basics for dressing are 1 part acid to 3 or 4 parts oil (depends on how acidy the acid is and how tart you like your dressing. I usually go 1 acid to 3 oil.

You don't even need to do the whisking thing. I just use a glass jar with a tight fitting lid.

You do need a decent olive oil, but you can get a perfectly good extra virgin olive oil for like, 10 bucks a liter.

Differences between olive oil

A basic dressing and one that will go very nicely with your salad-

1 part red wine vinegar
3 parts olive oil
1 minced shallot (you can also use 1 tbs onion instead if you like)
S&P to taste

Take the red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and shallot and place in jar. Let sit for a few minutes. Add the oil. Cover and shake, shake, shake. Done.

Now, you can also add a couple teaspoons of dijon if you like. Me? I'd add the pecorino to the dressing before shaking.]

Play around with your dressings. Orange juice makes a great acid for spinach salad. Lemon is also kind of great and usually is my acid of choice if there's no cheese in the salad. Personally, I'm generally not a fan of balsamic vinegar in my salad dressing (there are exceptions, but that's usually the case), but I seem to be alone in this.

Good luck!

After reading ingredient lists on dressings a couple years ago, I haven't bought store bought since. The advice above is great. Look around the internet for recipes for dressing you like or have had in restaurants.

Some dressing take good extra virgin olive oil, others take plain old vegetable oil. You don't have to spend big bucks to make awesome salad dressing. Actually I know I'm saving money on not buying bottles since I always have the ingredients around.

You also don't need appliances though in some instances a food processor, blender, or immersion blender can really be great, especially if you're adding garlic, shallots, or herbs and you can just dump everything in the machine and there you go.

If you have basic cookbooks around, e.g. Joy of Cooking, there are many basic recipes in there that you can add to. good luck.

Here is a great poppyseed dressing, it would be good on the spinach:
1&1/2 c. sugar
2/3 c. vinegar (I use cider)
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 TBsp. grated onion
2 c. oil
mix all together, add 3 Tbsp. poppy seeds

It tends to be about preference and experience as to which oil to use (or recipe). The more "virgin" the more flavor, typically. So you'd want good extra virgin where you really want to taste it, while if it's part of something more complicated you may either not want the flavor, or may be "wasting" it where it's lost. Some people prefer to use it for everything - Mario Batali even deep fries in EVOO. With the exception of dipping bread, I'm not a huge fan, so I tend to get "light" regular oil which has very little flavor. :)

once you make your own vinaigrette, you'll never go back. the basic ingredients for any vinaigrette are:
oil
acid (balsamic or other vinegar, lemon juice)
flavoring (garlic, sugar, herbs)
emulsifier (mustard)
salt & pepper

use all of these and you get a basic balsamic vinaigrette. you can find proportions in any basic cookbook, but its so simple that i usually dont even measure anymore - i just eyeball and whisk, with oil going in last so the flavors are mixed evenly. vary the acid and flavors to go with your salad. taste as you go along and adjust to your preferences. i also generally do a 2:1 oil to acid ratio because i like it tart.

you dont need really fancy olive oil for salad dressing because generally the acid can overwhelm the flavor of the oil but i would stick with virgin or better. some of the stuff labeled just olive oil can have cheaper additives in them.

If you didn't click on @lemons link, I urge you to go up and do it now! She has the most brilliant idea and I can't wait to try it.

@chiff ~ great advice, as always. Do you have any favorite brands that could be found in any grocery store?

My mother's favorite salad dressing was vinegar and oil, and she'd simply eyeball it. Make the salad, pour on oil and vinegar separately, maybe some salt and pepper, and eat. I still do it that way if I'm particularly lazy and/or if I'm not adding any dried herbs/spices that I want to integrate into the dressing. Shaking/blending emulsifies it and makes it seem creamier, but I can remember when restaurants would bring out cruets of oil and vinegar for diners to pour on the salads. No emulsifying there. It's not wrong, it's just different.

If you don't like the taste of your olive oil, try another brand. Keep in mind that you're also going to have a strong acidic flavor, so it's not like you're drinking the olive oil.

If the olive oil has too much flavor for you, you can use another oil that you do like, either with the olive oil or alone. Walnut oil is nice, or avocado oil. Or you can go for a really mild vegetable oil that's nearly flavorless.

Cost means you're probably getting a "better" olive oil, but it doesn't mean that you'll like the flavor, so it's pretty much a matter of tasting to see what you like. There's an unfiltered olive oil that's sold in the grocery store for $8.99 a bottle that I like a lot. Don't recall the brand, but it comes in a sort of square/rectangular bottle, and it's about the only unfiltered one I've seen at grocery stores.

For your particular salad, I think that lemon would be tasty. Just use lemon juice instead of the vinegar, or mix lemon juice and wine vinegar.

If you don't like your dressing really acidic, you can either use more oil, in proportion, or add some sugar, honey, or some other sweetener. I've got a red wine/sugar reduction that I made (it's basically a wine syrup) and sometimes I'll put that on a salad along with the vinegar and oil.

If you're adding dried herbs, sometimes it's useful to put the herbs into whatever container you're making the salad in, then add just enough water to moisten them and let them sit for maybe 5 minutes to rehydrate a bit. Then add the vinegar and oil.

I usually only make enough dressing for one salad at a time, and it's different just about every day.

@Perks - My mom always loved Bertolli and Costco has teamed up with them to offer an extra virgin OO. It's delicious and fragrant. Costco also carries a very big bottle of regular olive oil that I use for most cooking. These 2 are your best bets for well-priced olive oils. I find myself buying small bottles of specialty oils for tasting - it's more fun that way :D.

The other night, a friend of BF's from work came over and we had the most wonderful evening. Her family has an olive grove and they bottle artisan olive oils. She brought over a selection for us to try drizzled over various things and dabbed on bread. Her 95 year old uncle owns this Olive oil company and I could not believe how this stuff tasted. I think the only way to get this oil is by their website.

If you like the stuff at Carrabba's mixed with the herbs, it's by Borges. They are really tough to get ahold of an only want to sell wholesale :(.

Here are a few other dressing recipes you might like...
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Creamy Tamari Dressing
Nicoise Vinaigrette Dressing
Mustard Vinaigrette
Citrus Ceasar Dressing

Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking

@lemons ~ nah - you are too brilliant! I seriously can't wait to spear a clove of garlic and mix up salad dressing, stir gravy and my Bloody Mary and anything else that would benefit from a hint of garlic flavor. I don't know if I sent anyone to your website, but it's really great and they should visit and set a spell. Seriously!

the healthiest is cold pressed. it's all i ever buy.

nutrients and taste isn't destroyed by the heat generated by other types of pressings. cold pressed is a big deal and it'll say it on the front of the label.

i also only buy extra virgin because it's the tastiest to me, especially when eaten raw (i.e. on salads, or bread).

I can't be bothered to buy a 'lesser grade' to saute with, and if i wanted to 'fry' something i'd use canola oil or something.

the thing that went wrong with your aioli wasn't so much the olive oil as it was the process of making the aioli. it was bitter, wasn't it? when you beat the crap out of delicate olive oil in a blender or food processor to make a homemade mayo, it gets really bitter. You either need to whisk it by hand (good luck with that) or use a different kind of (mild) oil.

Our very favorite dressing for baby spinach and feta salad is a garlic lemon vinagrette.

I crush (to a paste) a clove of garlic sprinkled with a few pinches of kosher salt in a mortar with a pestle... add the juice of a lemon to the mortar, add some pepper, beat with a salad fork while drizzling in some olive oil, serve over salad. (we like it really lemony so i probably do half oil and half lemon, but you decide how much oil you like)

as for your mini lesson, extra virgin is the first pressing of the olives. after that it goes to virgin, then to just olive oil. each progression is a lesser grade and less expensive and less tasty for eating raw.

that's enough info for now, i won't try to confuse you with smoke points on the different grades. just know that the more virgin the oil the quicker, it will start smoking in the pan so if you want to sear something in freakin hot pan, don't waste your good olive oil. Iem not talkin sauteing a few onions here.