Details

Caprese Salad (Insalata caprese)

Hits: 3558

    
Preparation: 5 mins
Cooking: no cooking    
Difficulty: Easy
 Vegetarian

This is one of the most famous Italian salads and it is very easy to make. It seems it got its name for the island of Capri, in south Italy (very close to Naples), where top quality tomatoes, mozzarella and olive oil are abundant and regularly present in the local dishes; just think about the margherita pizza.

It contains very few ingredients, but you should use only the best of them, to make an exceptionally tasty caprese. Buy some organic beef tomatoes, some buffalo mozzarella, few leaves of fresh basil, a good extra virgin olive oil and finally some dry oregano. Then, think of assembling an Italian flag into your plate; that’s it!

Insalata caprese is a great starter, and very refreshing too. It can be served before a barbecue or eaten as a quick lunch, with some crackers, as I often do.

There are many variations of this salad, because people like to add other ingredients like anchovy fillets, black and green olives, chilli oil, capers etc. However, as I often say, keep it simple and don’t tweak the recipes too much; here the secret is the quality of the ingredients.   

SERVES 4

Ingredients:

• 4 Beef tomatoes (possibly organic)
• 4 Buffalo mozzarella balls
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Dry oregano
• Salt for seasoning
• Fresh basil leaves

Note: the ingredients above are for 4 persons. In general, you need one large tomato and one mozzarella ball per person.

In the following directions I will show you how to prepare one plate (for one person).

Directions:

Drain the mozzarella.

Slice the tomato and the mozzarella ball as shown in the picture.

Lay four or five tomato slices on the plate and top the tomato with the mozzarella slices.

Next, a generous dash of extra virgin olive oil.

Season with salt.

Scatter some dry oregano all over the plate.

Finally, top the mozzarella slices with fresh basil and now enjoy your caprese.

Buon appetito!