Salad Caprese is a popular Italian snack, traditionally served at the beginning of the meal. The red-white-green colors of this salad repeat the colors of the national flag of Italy, for which the dish is especially beloved by the Italians. This light salad can be considered quite dietary, thanks to the many useful substances contained in its components. The name Caprese comes from the name of the island of Capri, which is abundantly grown by tomatoes of the breed "Bull's heart", ideally suited for salad Caprese.
How to prepare Caprese salad?
In the classic capresa, making a minimum, preparing a dish is easy, most importantly, the products must be fresh enough. Tomatoes "Bull's heart", which are necessarily indicated in the classic salad recipe, can be replaced with tomatoes of other varieties, the main thing is that they are tomatoes of summer varieties, fleshy, sweet, fragrant and not watery. And for lack of a true Italian mozzarella, you can use rennet fresh cheeses (feta, cheese), choosing not too salty, dense varieties. Fresh basil leaves, olive oil and balsamic vinegar will have to be found - these ingredients are needed.
Recipe Caprese - the classic version
So, here is the classic recipe for Caprese with mozzarella.
Ingredients:
- 2 large ripe red or pink tomatoes;
- 200 g of mozzarella cheese;
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil;
- 1 teaspoon of dark balsamic vinegar;
- fresh basil leaves;
- black pepper powder;
- salt.
Preparation:
Mozzarella or other cheese shall be cut into slices. Tomatoes we will wash, we shall dry a napkin and we shall cut in circles. Sauce for Caprese is prepared quite simply: mix olive oil and balsamic vinegar (the approximate proportion is 4: 1). On the serving dish lay out overlap, alternating, slices of cheese, tomatoes and basil leaves. Pour prepared pouring and lightly pepper. If necessary, you can slightly add. You can bring light table wine to the Caprese salad.
Caprese with pesto sauce
You can prepare Caprese with pesto sauce. In this version of the cooking we do everything, except for pouring, as well as in the previous recipe. We will prepare pesto sauce separately and use it to fill the salad.
Pesto sauce is one of the most popular sauces in the Italian culinary tradition. Its base is olive oil, the composition also includes garlic, basil leaves, pine seeds (can be replaced with walnuts or cashew nuts) and Pecorino cheese or Grana Padanno cheese. Pesto sauce has a specific green color. There is a variant of red sauce with sun-dried tomatoes. Usually this sauce is sold ready-made in jars, you can just add it to Caprese.
Caprese with arrows
You can prepare Caprese salad with rucola, using the latter instead of basil (or together with basil), garlic will also be very handy. This variant approach to salad preparation is also good: the dish will turn out delicious, but it should be noted that this version of the recipe can not be considered classic. Yes, and rukola, although useful, not all to taste - this herb a little bitter, if it is not properly processed. I would like to note that if the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space often eat salads similar to Caprese, preferring their favorite salads with mayonnaise (most of them for some reason we are called Olivier), they will undoubtedly be more healthy and slim.