Thinking About Home: Salad On Tuesday: Week 10 {Caprese Salad}

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Salad On Tuesday: Week 10 {Caprese Salad}

This salad is so basic and so refreshing and as easy as 1-2-3.

1) You just go out to your garden and pick some tomatoes. (Or if you have used all of your garden tomatoes and the rest are some shade of green, stop at a local produce stand and pick up a few, hypothetically speaking, of course).

2) Go to the market and buy some fresh mozzarella. (Or send your daughter in to buy the fresh mozzarella and she buys a prepackaged block which is not the same consistency or shape but will do just fine. Again, hypothetically speaking.)

3) Run out to the herb garden and snip some basil leaves. (Or send your daughter to snip said leaves because your hungry husband is home from work and ready for dinner and you need to get things moving along more quickly. Yes, hypothetically.)

Now you're all ready to assemble Caprese Salad...and have it on the table lickety split!

There are no precise measurements for this salad, just a simple process.

~ ~ ~ ~

Slice fresh tomatoes into thick slices.

Slice the mozzarella into similarly sized slices.

Stack a slice of tomato, a slice of mozzarella, and a basil leaf.

Repeat until you're out of tomatoes.

Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Sprinkle coarse salt and freshly ground pepper.

Tonight I served this salad with Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, but it goes just as nicely with grilled chicken or with beef.

I arranged each "stack" separately this evening, but I have also arranged them in overlapping rows, as in this picture:

~source~

And I plan to try Caprese hors d'oeuvres by alternating basil leaves, small balls of mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes on a skewer and then drizzling the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over a tray of those. Or I may even try this if my basil leaves grow big enough. Aren't they cute?