Is there anything more wonderful than fresh tomatoes; picked at the peak of their glorious, scarlet harvest? Let me save you the trouble of thinking that over. There isn’t. In fact, is it possible that when I brought home a Greek salad from a local restaurant, that I tossed out their sad little cherry tomatoes with the barest hint of a sneer on my face, and replaced them with a tomato from my garden? Maybe. The point is, a glorious recipe like this deserves the best tomatoes you can find. So get to your local farmer’s market, or find a vegetable stand by the side of the road, and buy a few home-grown tomatoes for this recipe, because it makes all the difference.
This recipe is based on a very well-known classic, Insalata Caprese. It is delicious, fresh, and easy to make, with only six basic ingredients: tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I have tried adding a few other ingredients on occasion, but I have always come back to the basics. These six ingredients combine perfectly, to make a salad that will dazzle you, and your guests. There are other things you can do as well, to have a little fun with this recipe. You can add cooked pasta, either warm or cold, to turn this into a fantastic side dish. Grilled chicken makes this a main course for a luncheon, or late summer dinner party!
Start with one cup packed fresh basil leaves, picked from your own garden, or grab some in the produce section of your local supermarket. Dried basil really doesn’t work for this recipe, so make sure you use fresh basil. You can chop it fine, but for this recipe, I like to chiffonade the basil.
To chiffonade basil, take the pile of leaves, and roll them up into a tight bundle. Slice cleanly through the bundle, with a chef’s knife into the narrowest strips that you can manage. This will leave you with thin shreds of basil for your salad, and you are good to go!
Roughly chop three large tomatoes into half inch pieces with a serrated knife, and cube 8 oz. of fresh mozzarella. Again, this is not a situation where you want to make substitutions. In a recipe with so few ingredients, each of them really stands out. I am all for improvising when you find yourself without access to an ingredient, or using dried herbs as a substitute for fresh, in a pinch, but I can’t recommend that for this particular dish. If you try to swap out shredded mozzarella for fresh, or dried basil instead of fresh, it will make a distinct difference, and not for the better.
Throw your tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella into a serving bowl. Drizzle in some good, high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, over the ingredients and gently toss to combine. Don’t be too rough, your fresh tomatoes will start to come apart, and your salad will seem watery. Last but not least, add some sea salt, and freshly ground black-pepper. That is all this salad needs, and you will have a showstopper on your hands.
Try to time your preparations, so you can make this salad about thirty minutes before serving. That allows the flavors to blend, and the temperature of the ingredients to come together. Do not, I repeat do not, refrigerate this salad! Refrigeration dulls the flavor of the fresh tomatoes, and will cause the olive oil to thicken. This salad, really takes only takes five minutes to prepare, so it should be pretty easy to coordinate with the rest of your meal! Buon appetito!
