My homemade Italian dressing recipe is fresh, authentic & a great marinade mix! We think this Italian vinaigrette is the best dressing – better than Olive Garden or Wishbone any day! A perfect dressing for any of your favorite salads, or try it over my delicious Italian Pasta Salad.
Have you ever looked at the Wishbone Italian dressing or Good Seasons Italian dressing mix and wondered what in the world all those ingredients were? Or licked your plate because the Olive Garden salad dressing recipe was out of this world?!
I can tell you right off the bat that hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup are two of the most harmful “ingredients” you’ll ever come across.
Unfortunately, they’re in almost every bottled dressing or restaurant salad dressing. When we first started eating real food, these ingredients were the first to be banned from our kitchen!
Learning how to make our own salad dressings was one of the first baby steps I took towards healthier eating, and to this day, Italian dressing is still one of my go-to easy salad dressing recipe and marinades!
Why You Should Make Your Own Italian Dressing
I love making my own Italian dressing for a few reasons:
- It mixes up in a jar in less than 2 minutes
- I can use the dry Italian dressing mix as a spice on vegetables
- I almost always have everything I need to make it in my kitchen… and if I don’t, the recipe is super flexible
- It’s 100% sugar-free (here’s why we stopped eating sugar)!
- It’s the perfect balance of tang and Italian spice we’ve come to know and love!
Homemade Italian Dressing Ingredients
A list of 8 dry ingredients might seem long, but it’s really a bunch of dry herbs and spices you likely already have in your spice cabinet.
- Oregano
- Salt and Pepper
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Parsley
- Basil
- Thyme
Plus
- water
- vinegar (any flavor works well – or make your own)
- olive oil (I like this brand)
Notes on Ingredients for Italian Dressing
- If by chance you DON’T have any of the above dry ingredients, go get them! You’ll use them in other homemade spice mixes like homemade poultry seasoning, homemade taco seasoning, and Montreal steak seasoning.
- I recommend pulling out all of the spices at the same time. That way you can whiz through the recipe in no time.
- As I mentioned, it’s worth investing in the single dry spices. You can take the single herbs and make SO MANY of your own spice blends and dressings, and this will save you a lot of money in the long run.
- To save time, I usually triple or quadruple the dry portion of this recipe and store it in a jar in my spice cabinet.
- I write “2 Tbsp” on the jar and that’s to let me know I need that much dry seasoning mix to make a batch of dressing. (Although you can always use more or less, depending on how you like your dressing to taste.)
- I love using mason jars for homemade dressing and these lids make it super easy to shake and pour!
- Plus, when I have a batch of the dry seasoning mix made, I can use it on other things like pasta, rice, vegetables or even in my 15-minute Italian meatballs!
How to Make Italian Dressing (Step By Step)
Step 1. Combine all ingredients in a jar or container capable of holding at least 2 1/2 cups.
Step 2. Cover and shake well.
Note: Recipe makes just short of two cups of dressing.
Italian Dressing Recipe Tips
- Anytime I make this dressing for pasta salad, I always put a green salad on the menu for later in the week to use up any leftover dressing.
- I don’t recommend using fresh herbs for this recipe.
- Use this as a marinade! Add it to your meats when you first come home from the store and then freeze them. As the meat thaws, the flavor will marinate the meat.
- Use the dry seasoning mix liberally for pasta, rice, or vegetables. Or even to make Italian meatballs!
- I prefer apple cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, but you can use red wine vinegar and/or lemon juice. Both will affect the flavor in the end.
- Make this a CREAMY Italian salad dressing recipe by swapping Greek yogurt for all or part of the oil!
- To get that signature Olive Garden Italian dressing recipe flavor, you’ll need to add a pinch or two of sugar.
Italian Salad Dressing FAQs
Yes, yes, and yes! All of the ingredients needed for Italian salad dressing are plant-based and gluten-free. If you use quality extra virgin olive oil instead of vegetable oil, then this can be healthy too!
You can easily leave this dressing out on the counter for a day or two without any issues. Both oil and vinegar are natural preservatives.
Because we’re using just a splash of water though, you’ll want to refrigerate it for longer storage.
Yes and yes! Have you ever had Italian dressing chicken? It’s where you marinate the chicken in Italian dressing and it’s SO good… and super easy!
This is also the same dressing we use when we make Italian pasta salad. We sprinkle a bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top and OH MY – it’s so good!
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Here are some of our favorites:
- Greek Salad Dressing
- Caesar Salad Dressing
- Ranch Salad Dressing (with a method for making it Whole30 compliant!)
- Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Thai Peanut Salad Dressing
- Sweet Lemon Vinaigrette
Homemade Italian Salad Dressing
My homemade Italian dressing recipe is fresh, authentic & a great marinade mix! We think this Italian vinaigrette is the best dressing – better than Olive Garden or Wishbone any day! A perfect dressing for any of your favorite salads!
- Prep Time: 2 mins
- Cook Time: 0 mins
- Total Time: 2 mins
- Yield: scant 2 cups 1x
- Category: Sauces/Condiments
- Method: Combine and shake
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1/2 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup vinegar (any flavor works well)
- 1 1/2 cups olive oil (I like this brand)
Instructions
- Combine everything above in a jar or container capable of holding at least 2 1/2 cups. Cover and shake well. Recipe makes just scant of two cups of dressing.
Notes
To save time, I usually triple or quadruple the dry portion of this recipe and store it in a jar in my spice cabinet.
I write “2 Tbsp” on the jar and that’s to let me know I need that much dry seasoning mix to make a batch of dressing. (Although you can always use more or less, depending on how you like your dressing to taste.)
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Tbsp
- Calories: 35
Keywords: Italian dressing
I was soo excited to try this recipe but oooh weee, a tablespoon of salt was way too salty for this recipe.
Hi Luella,
Thanks for sharing with us. I will definitely pass your thoughts on and I’ll double check the recipe. Thanks again.
I do like this but the vinegar is a little too strong. I used white vinegar and I am looking for something to tame it. Maybe sugar? Thank you for sharing. I think I will make this frequently once I tweak it.
★★★★
Hi Heather,
Maybe apple cider vinegar would work better for you?
Heather, I like to use rice vinegar (seasoned, mild & sweet) and I use about a teaspoon of sugar. And olive oil. Adjust to your taste. I hope this is useful to you.
Great recipe but I hate when print recipes from your website and they have ads when you print. It takes extra ink and I don’t have that issue with other websites. It makes me tend to not print/use your recipes as often because I hate how the printouts have ads printed. Is that something you can take off?
Will be trying this salad dressing tomorrow. Would like to triple the seasonings to keep ready to use.
You label it to use 2 tablespoons; to how much oil and vinegar? I am pleased to find your web site.
Vel, 2 tbsp premade dry seasoning for 2 tablespoons water, 1 cup vinegar, 1 1/2 cups olive oil. But you can add more or less dry seasoning to your preference.
do you need 0,5 cup vinegar instead of 1 cup if not it makes 2.5cups
Ed, it is supposed to make 2.5-ish cups.
I love homemade salad dressings! I will definitely be trying this one! I have also reverse engineered a few to make at home and keep the cost down, like Primal Kitchen Honey Mustard Vinaigrette and a copycat Panera White Balsamic Vinaigrette!
Can I omit onion powder from this recipe? I don’t have any!
Of course! Or minced onion would work too.