Welp, it's officially summer, which means that I can officially start keeping track of how many orders I get from clients for my Caprese Salad. I swear, I make so many of these you wouldn't believe it. I offer loads of other bright, colorful, delicious, wonderful salads, but for some reason come summertime the simple, traditional caprese ends up being the front runner every year.
It's not surprising to see why- tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella are a perfect match. Classic, like The Three Stooges even. Since I have prepared this customary combo over and over again, I've had plenty of opportunities to tinker with the standard recipe, altering this and that along the way to come up with my favorite rendition, which I am tickled to share with you today.
For starters, we are in prime tomato season right now, so why not use the cream of the crop? I love to showcase the different shapes, sizes and colors of heirloom tomatoes in my rustic version. While we're at it, let's toss in some of the gooiest, richest cheese around, shall we? Ah, burrata...you make everything taste better, you creamy devil.
Next, you could do a simple chiffonade of basil, nothing wrong with that. But I'm having kind of a moment with micro basil right now. It's so delicate and pretty, just scatter the leaves whole and you're halfway to summer salad nirvana.
Ok, now I know what you're thinking, and you're absolutely right: olives are not traditionally part of a caprese salad. But like I said before, I have made caprese salad so. many. times. Like a thousand, probably. I was getting bored with the purists' interpretation, so can you blame me for going rouge and adding a few tasty little olives into the mix?
Go ahead, I dare you.
Any olives will do, but nicoise are my favorite here- they're flavorful but not overpowering. And I bet once you've tried it you won't want to go back. Now all that's left to do is add a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt and your caprese salad upgrade is complete!
serves 4
Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs. heirloom tomatoes, sliced
6 ounces burrata cheese
1/4 cup nicoise olives, drained
1/4 cup micro basil
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Flaky sea salt
Instructions
1. Divide tomato slices evenly among plates. Dollop burrata cheese over tomatoes and sprinkle olives and micro basil on top.
2. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt before serving.
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