Monday, August 10, 2015

Caprese Salad Your Way


The most impressive salad I ever had, was at
an Italian restaurant in Cabo, and it was a
Caprese Salad, stacked like this, swimming in
a luscious basil and olive oil dressing.  We would
order it every time.  It was a little pricey, but 
everyone would order one.  Then one fateful day,
we ordered four of them at our table, and someone
had decided to ruin the Caprese Salad.  There were
a few slices of unripe tomatoes on the plate, a few
pieces of cheese and some basil.  Gone was the stunning
stack,  the beautifully ripened tomatoes and the
fabulous dressing.  I am not one to complain at a restaurant,
but paying for four awful salads, at a high price each, was a
bit much for me.  Well, my complaint fell on deaf
ears, and that was the last time we went back there.


The great thing, is it is really easy to make at home,
and with my tomatoes coming on, today is the
perfect day.  I also was just recently home for
a high school reunion and a family reunion and I
happened to pick up the most amazing 
fresh basil cheese, and I thought this would be the
perfect cheese to serve with it.


If you are going to stack your Caprese Salad, slice it
and then cut it into perfect rounds the size of your
tomato slices, this way you will get a neater and prettier
presentation.  I just snacked on my scraps.


This makes such an elegant statement for a salad, but
you can also serve it on a platter.  I like to play
with the cheeses that I serve as I find mozzarella
a little bland.  I have used Monterey Jack before,
but this Fresh Basil Farmer's Cheese is the best
I have tried.


 Look at this beautiful Fresh Basil Farmer's Cheese with
basil all the way through it.  We bought it at Brennan's in 
Madison, Wisconsin, where we filled a cooler with wonderful
Wisconsin cheese to bring home.


Caprese Salad with Basil Dressing

Sliced Fresh Tomatoes
Sliced cheese
3T. fresh basil
1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. Balsamic vinegar
Squeeze of lemon juice
Pinch salt

Layer the tomatoes and cheese as desired.
Place the basil, oil, vinegar, lemon and salt
in a blender and pulse until the basil is
finely chopped.  Drizzle over the tomatoes and cheese.


I will be sharing this with

Jacqueline
Jacqueline

Chocolat - French for Chocolate. I adored chocolate from a young age when I had to sneak in the cupboard to find where my mother had hidden the Nestle's Chocolate Chips. Having read about the famous chocolat shoppes in Paris, when I finally got there I was determined to try a chocolate from every Paris shoppe. I invite you to share my adventures in creating, in travel, and in life.

14 comments:

  1. 와 맛있게 보이다! 나도 먹을래!!

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  2. Chase I love that you took time to comment but I don't read Korean! Haha

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  3. Wow this looks amazing! I'm going to make this with my wife tonight!!

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  4. The basil cheese looks beautiful, bet it was great:@)

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  5. Caprese Salad is a favorite at our house. I've never tried it this way, but I will!

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  6. Jacqueline, I recently saw a caprese salad stack at a restaurant but it was not as beautiful as yours! This looks so delicious with the ripe tomatoes, the interesting cheese and the dressing! I hope your trip home was enjoyable. Linda

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  7. the only way to eat capreses in my opinion is with mozzarella di buffalo..made with water buffalos milk..we lived in Naples Italy and that is what they used..you can get this at trader joes..its okay..but its pasturized and in italy they didn't pasturize it..had to be eaten in 3 days..but sooooo good..and moist and gooey..costco mozz is a close second..made with cows milk..

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  8. Now, this looks delicious! Just saw this post today. I will make this I am sure, over and over again.

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  9. Beautiful stacked salad. Love the cheese you are using. It's too bad the restaurant failed to live up to their reputation. It's their loss! Yummy!

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  10. Oh how I wish that cheese was available here! Lovely presentation Jacqueline!

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  11. This is definitely the season for the best Caprese salads! I love the beautiful presentation and glad you didn't return to that restaurant after they didn't at least comp you for the bad salads. I hope I can find that beautiful basil mozzarella in the Milwaukee area!

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  12. I know I commented the first day because I remember mentioning skewers and feats of engineering, but must chime in again to say that these are simply lovely, and would make a show-stopper at any dinner party.

    We've been enjoying fresh tomatoes for more than a couple of months now, and just thinking about that redolence of spicy basil, juicy rich tomatoes and good olive oil in a bowl, with the heat of fresh-cooked pasta coalescing the sauce into a whole WAY beyond the sum of any parts---my, my.

    But this---this is ART on a plate, stacked or arranged or simply BEING, and I'm glad to have another look at such a beautiful creation.

    r

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  13. Thank you to like the home tour. Your recipe sounds delicious. I will try it. Love sujatha:)

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