Classic Caprese Salad

Also known as tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, this is a simple but delicious and refreshing summer classic. It is served traditionally as lunch or an appetizer, but on especially hot days, we eat it for dinner. That might sound like not enough food, but we eat kind of a lot of it. Especially my daughter Birdy, who identifies this as her “actual favorite meal.”

If you don’t have great tomatoes and good mozzarella, then it might not really be worth making, although in a pinch, Polly-O whole-milk mozzarella, which is not fresh, works. However, it has to be that exact brand. Anyway, my husband disagrees with me about it, so it's probably best to go with fresh if at all possible. If you don’t have fresh basil, you can swap a blob of prepared pesto for both the olive oil and basil, but this is not ideal. It turns out, I am very bossy about a very basic dish!

Recipe Details: Caprese Salad

Active time: 15 minutes

Total time: 15 minutes

Makes: 4 servings

Total carbohydrates: 6 grams per serving

Ingredients

• 2-3 large tomatoes
• Kosher salt
• 12 ounces fresh mozzarella (Trader Joe’s is my favorite, and it is the least expensive one I’ve found)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 dozen (or so) fresh basil leaves

Instructions

1. Slice the tomatoes and lay them out on a platter. Salt them generously.
2. Slice the mozzarella similarly. Lay the slices on the tomatoes.
3. Drizzle with the olive oil, then top each piece with a fresh basil leaf. Season as needed and serve.

Recipe Note

I love the gorgeousness and spectacle of serving the salad on a platter, but you can do it more humbly too: Just dice the tomatoes and cheese, slice the basil, and toss everything in a bowl with the olive oil, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and salt to taste. Why do I use balsamic vinegar here, but not in the above version? I don’t know, but that’s what I do (feel free to add balsamic as you like to the sliced version for some extra depth of flavor).

Photo credits: Catherine Newman (bottom)