Caprese Salad

I love ordering caprese salad when I’m eating at Italian restaurants… but I always felt a tinge of guilt that I was overpaying what I was actually getting. So of course my next mission was to recreate the caprese salad. This didn’t take much since there are only 4 ingredients! When you have so few ingredients, the quality of the ingredients becomes extremely important. So go for quality when you shop!

Ingredients:

3 ripe tomatoes (you can use vine ripe or roma), diced into 1/4 inch slices
1 bunch of fresh basil
Fresh mozzarella cheese (about 1 lb) [I’ve shown two types I like to use.. the fresher the better!], diced into 1/4 inch slices
extra virgin olive oil (“EVOO”)
balsamic vinegar (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Place the tomato slices on a shallow plate, layer the mozzarella cheese on, and the basil leaves. I like to coarsely chop the basil leaves. (There really is no rule to which goes first.. as you can see I placed the cheese first and then tomatoes on top. It just depends on the sizes. Just remember big on bottom and smaller on top. )
2. Drizzle with EVOO, and a little balsamic if you like the taste.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Enjoy homemade fresh caprese salad!