Tomato Caprese - Ca-razy!

I'm crazy about Tomato Caprese, and my yellow tomatoes have just started ripening so when I needed an extra dish to take to a funeral dinner today at church, I made a platter of Tomato Caprese. Here's the way I make mine in case anyone is unfamiliar with the dish:

Tomato Caprese

Sliced tomatoes (I alternate red and yellow slices, and today I threw in an Aunt Ruby's green slice every now and then. You can alternate with just red tomatoes and cheese if you have no yellow or green-fleshed tomatoes.)
Fresh mozzarella, sliced to match tomato sizes (don't try to substitute sliced aged mozzarella cheese. It MUST be the fresh stuff that comes in a ball, usually submerged in water.)
olive oil
vinegar of choice (I used champagne vinegar today)
salt
chopped herbs (I prefer basil, but the rabbits ate mine so I used chopped spearmint today. I've also used parsley when I couldn't get basil.)

Make rows or circles of overlapping tomatoes and cheese. I usually place a red tomato, yellow tomato, and mozzarella slice, then repeat. Continue overlapping until dish is full. If using a round plate, sometimes I make a large outer circle, then a smaller inner circle of overlapping tomatoes and cheese, or sometimes I fill the center of the circle with halved cherry tomatoes.

Sprinkle lightly with salt, drizzle on a little olive oil, sprinkle very lightly with vinegar, and sprinkle all with a few chopped herbs.

I like to let the flavors meld a couple of hours at least before serving at room temp.

A sweet little lady at the dinner today told me that she just loved those tomatoes with the cream cheese. I tried to explain to her that it was fresh mozzarella, not cream cheese, but I have no doubt she was convinced it was cream cheese. I'm sure she'll try making it that way. Who knows? It may be a great new recipe.

Yup, it's delicious!

I make a phenomenal bruchetta with diced tomato, minced fresh rosemary, chopped, pitted calamata olives and crushed garlic....salt, pepper, crustini. OMG, cannot WAIT!!!!!!! My mouth is watering.

This is one of my favorite things in the world....fres garden tomatoes make it even better

I like to add capers and fresh ground black pepper too! YUM!!!

YUM!!! One of my favorite ways to have fresh homegrown tomatoes!

camprn wrote:I like to add capers and fresh ground black pepper too! YUM!!!

Oooh, that sounds really good, CampRN, I've got to try that next time.

Do you still use herbs along with the capers?

Silverbug, your recipe sounds great, too. Thanks for sharing.

And lots of basil cut in ribbons, or not. with olives and fresh bread... and a fine sangiovase, OMG I wish the tomatoes were ready!

I like to make a variation of the salad, and make caprese kebabs.
I buy the small bocconcini balls and use my cherry tomatoes, and just alternate them on skewers. Then I make a marinade with the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and chopped basil, and drizzle it over the skewers.
If you are an olive fan (personally, I'm not) you can skewer black olives on the kebabs as well.

I moved this post to the Vegetable and Side Dish category.

Seeing the picture of that Caprese Salad makes me realize how much I'm going to miss the fresh tomatoes this winter. Sigh.

pattipan

You can use lemon juice in place of the vinegar, too.

the Italians keep it pure - tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil (extra virgin, please!) salt, and pepper. Nothing more.

if my tomatoes are borderline (as in not from my garden!) I also finely mince some shallot...adds some nice flavor.

Wyldflower wrote:YUM!!! One of my favorite ways to have fresh homegrown tomatoes!

x3 ..... this combo is definately one of growing-gods best little little gifts to gardeners IMHO.


I could eat this for every meal, all summer long ..... especially when its 95-100 degrees out & it's just to hot to cook or have a hot-prepared meal.

The cherry-tomato variation of this isn't too shabby either.

Looking very forward to being able to make this from my own garden this year, instead of having to hit the local produce stands whenever I get the craving.