Caprese: traditional recipe

Caprese salad is one of the Italian state dishes. It is believed that caprese originated on the Capri Peninsula, in the Bay of Naples, because the name of the salad can be literally translated as “salad from the island of Capri.” Apart from its specific geographic affiliation with Italy, the salad is considered truly Italian because of its color similarity to the country’s flag: reddish tomatoes, greenish basil and snow-white Mozzarella cheese.

The salad acquired its modern form relatively recently - more than two centuries ago, but as for the original version of the dish, it arose back in the days of Old Rome.

Caprese is usually prepared with pesto sauce, but it can be done without it.

Traditional Caprese does not take much time and effort, and the result is indescribably delicious.

If you do not have ready-made pesto sauce from a container, then we will tell you how to prepare it at home.

Pesto

Required components:

Olive oil - 7 tbsp;
Basil - 1 bunch;
Garlic - 1 clove;
Pine nuts - 40 g;
Grated Parmesan cheese - 50 g;
Salt - to taste.

Pesto

Manufacturing process:

First, place the basil leaves, garlic, nuts and oil in a blender bowl.
Grind the ingredients until they reach a puree-like consistency.
Add grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce and stir the sauce again.

Traditional Caprese salad recipe

Required components:

Mozzarella cheese (soft) - 250 g;
Tomato - 3-4 pcs;
Pesto sauce - 100 g;
Basil - a few leaves for decoration.

Traditional Caprese salad recipe

Manufacturing process:

First, wash the tomatoes well, then carefully cut them into circles 5-6 mm wide. To prevent tomatoes from becoming wrinkled when cutting, use a sharp knife.
Next, cut the Mozzarella cheese into slices.
Take portioned plates or a huge dish and start laying out the tomatoes, alternating them with Mozzarella cheese: you can simply lay them out in vertical rows, or in a circle.
Dip a silicone pastry brush into the pesto and generously brush the top of the salad, or you can take a teaspoon and use it to spread a trail of sauce over the tomatoes and cheese.
Garnish the dish with pieces of fragrant basil and serve.

Caprese salad

Required components:

Mozzarella cheese - 150 g;
Medium-sized tomatoes - 5-6 pcs;
Basil sprig - 2-3 pcs;
Olive oil - 4-5 tbsp;
Salt - to taste;
Dark pepper - to taste;
Capers, balsamic sauce - oregano - to taste.

Caprese salad

Manufacturing process:

First, carefully but carefully wash the basil and tomatoes.
Take a sharp knife. This is important, because if you cut tomatoes with a dull knife, they will become wrinkled. Cut the tomatoes into circles a little more than 5 mm wide.
The next step is to cut the cheese into the same slices as the tomatoes - about 6 mm. Tomatoes and cheese should be approximately similar in thickness and size.
Then place the cheese slices and tomatoes on a serving plate, forming a circle and alternating the ingredients.
Add salt, pepper and oregano. But there should be very little spice, the main thing should be the taste of tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese.
Add about a teaspoon of capers if desired. Just sprinkle them lightly over the salad.
Place basil leaves on top of the salad to taste. You can also alternate cheese, tomatoes and basil at first.
Just before serving, drizzle the salad with olive oil. But be careful - the salad should not stand with oil, because it will release juice and spread across the plate.
Add oil just before use.
Bon appetit!

Italian Caprese salad

Required components:

Tomatoes - 2 pcs;
Mozzarella cheese - 1 ball;
Balsamic vinegar - 1 tbsp;
Olive oil - 1 tbsp;
Fresh basil - to taste;
Salt - to taste;
Freshly ground dark pepper - to taste.

Italian Caprese salad

Manufacturing process:

First, thoroughly wash the tomatoes and basil, then take a sharp knife and cut the tomatoes into circles approximately 5 mm in size.
Mozzarella balls vary in size, so if the ball is very large, simply cut it in half. Cut the Mozzarella cheese so that the tomatoes and cheese are approximately the same size.
The next step is to place the main ingredients on a plate, alternating them.
Salt and pepper the salad, season with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Garnish the salad with fresh basil and serve.
Bon appetit!

Caprese in tomato

Required components:

Fresh tomatoes - 10 pcs;
Mozzarella cheese - 250 g;
Fresh basil - to taste;
Ground pepper - to taste;
Olive oil - to taste.

Caprese in tomato

Manufacturing process:

First, wash the basil and tomatoes well under cool water, then take a sharp knife, this is important, because using a dull knife will bruise the tomatoes.
Place the tomato on its side and make several cuts on the side. The cuts should go through almost the entire tomato, but not to the end.
Cut the Mozzarella cheese into circles, small enough to fit into the cuts.
Insert pieces of cheese and a basil leaf into the slits on the tomatoes.
Before serving, sprinkle the tomatoes with black pepper and lightly drizzle with olive oil.
Bon appetit!

We hope that you will definitely try to prepare Caprese salad according to one of these recipes and the dish will be to the taste of you, your family and friends.

Caprese salad

How to be known as a caprese connoisseur and amaze your guests.

In my opinion, caprese is not a salad, not an appetizer, not a meal. This is a harmony of taste, an explosion of colors, an indescribable symphony of smell. The recipe for caprese salad - real Italian caprese - is not as simple as it seems at first glance. So what does it include?

Products for caprese

Mozzarella

Perfectly made from dark buffalo milk. Oh, don’t turn the page right away, we all realize that with a perfect approach to making caprese, you can end up hungry, so we write “mozzarella” in the shopping list, and keep the origin in mind - maybe you’ll get lucky, who understands?

However, when choosing mozzarella, resolutely put aside semi-hard varieties of cheese, do not pay any attention to smoked varieties, but boldly take a lot of smooth, juicy balls in brine. So, we look at the packaging (whole and strong) and look for the inscription “Mozzarella di Bufala”, and when we find it, we take this particular cheese.

Maybe you won’t be able to find mozzarella made from buffalo milk this time, so just replace it with mozzarella made from cow’s milk. Naturally, this is a slightly different calico, but the agreement is completely appropriate, don’t be upset.

Tomatoes

Perhaps they are the main flavor point in caprese. Naturally, the overall success of the salad is determined by the quality and excellent taste of all participants, but tomatoes are still the central figure. Tomatoes of the “Bull’s Heart” variety “sound” best in this appetizer, but any ground fruit with a pronounced taste, juicy and fragrant, is also suitable.

Caprese is an out-of-season dish; it can be prepared both in winter and in summer, fortunately, modern hypermarkets are trying to ensure that at any time of the year you can buy everything your heart desires. But it’s worth realizing that the plastic tomatoes that fill store shelves before the New Year are not the product that will decorate caprese.

Basil

Here, in general, everything is simple: fresh, with intact leaves, fragrant.

Olive oil

Of course, only high quality and only cold pressed. The color should be slightly herbal, and the corresponding taste of olives should be clearly felt in the taste. Don’t forget that good olive oil is fresh, young oil, so if you have a bottle in your pantry saved from a trip to Greece 3 years ago, it’s better to forget about it for another three years, so that you can use it later without regret for lubricating squeaky doors. Caprese requires the addition of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and nothing else.

Pesto

For salad dressing, it’s better to create it yourself, it’s very easy. A powerful blender, velvety pine nuts, high-quality olive oil, luxurious parmesan, glossy basil leaves, a couple of cloves of fragrant garlic - that’s all the wisdom. Simple, but fresh, fragrant and handmade!

By the way, pesto is not an indispensable component of caprese. Three pillars - cheese, tomatoes, basil, everything else simply complements the taste of the appetizer, but taking into account how brightly and professionally pesto does this, I strongly recommend not to neglect its role in the overall event.

How to Become a Caprese Connoisseur

Contrary to popular belief, the name of the word did not come from the word “whim”. The etymology is in the name of the Italian island of Capri, comfortably located in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Whether the dish was born on the colorful slopes of the island, where K. Paustovsky and Oscar Wilde loved to visit, who encouraged I. Aivazovsky and almost all film directors, is not currently clear for certain, but the fact that caprese owes its name specifically to him has been confirmed.

Caprese salad recipe

2 medium sized tomatoes;
200 g mozzarella;
50 g basil;
2 tbsp. l. olive oil;
1 tsp. pesto;
salt, freshly ground dark pepper to taste.

Let's start with the mozzarella - you need to remove it from the brine and cut it into slices up to half a centimeter wide.

The next step is tomatoes. Wash, dry, cut into slices the same thickness as the cheese. With all this, it will be great if the total size of the chopped mozzarella and tomato circles is approximately equal. Yes, and don’t forget that you need to carefully cut out the stem of tomatoes.

We place vegetables and cheese on a beautiful huge plate - alternately and slightly overlapping.

Sprinkle with olive oil. You don’t need much, and you shouldn’t skimp.

If desired, add a little salt. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

Decorate with basil leaves and sprinkle with finely chopped herbs. Drizzle a little pesto onto any slice of cheese.

Ready! Serve immediately.

How to Serve Caprese Salad

By the way, about serving - if you think that all options are limited to a large plate, I hasten to dissuade you: there is a huge field for imagination.

Caprese can be served in the form of sandwiches - slices of crispy baguette on which mozzarella, tomatoes, basil are comfortably nestled, lightly flavored with olive oil... From time to time, you must admit, you can easily give half a kingdom for such a treat!

An excellent “guest” option is “towers” of cheese, tomatoes and basil. Topped with pesto, they look great!

Skewers are a beautiful way to serve a tasty appetizer during a buffet table. A “pillow” of baked peppers or zucchini, on which fresh tomatoes and cheese rest, is a satisfying composition of warm and cool. Multi-colored mousse in glasses - not caprese, naturally, but also an option!

By the way, antipasti in portioned molds is a very stylish idea. Take a beautiful dish of an unusual shape, put colorful tomatoes and white cheese in it, decorate it with flirtatiously peeking basil leaves - and immediately the spirit of the holiday arises, the presence of solemnity, joyful laughter, and beloved friends is felt. To implement this idea, it is better to take cherry tomatoes and baby mozzarella. By carefully placing everything in tiny glasses, you will get an unusual verrine - a unique method of serving salads and appetizers, in which the ingredients are stacked in layers and served to the table in a container the size of which does not exceed 170 ml.

No less creative abilities are revealed when trying to fantasize about the ingredients for caprese. Classics of the genre are great, and experiments are great too! How else will you understand how delicious caprese with the freshest champignons turns out if you don’t cook it as soon as possible?

Nuts, figs, strawberries, arugula, grapes - try, combine and enjoy the natural taste of freshness, nature, vitamins!

Caprese salad

Ingredients

Mozzarella – 2 balls

Basil – 0.5-1 bunch (to taste)

Ground dark pepper - to taste

Olive oil - to taste

Balsamic vinegar - optional

“Greenish sauce”:

Basil – 0.5-1 bunch

Garlic – 1 clove

Olive oil – as needed

85 kcal
5 minutes.
5 minutes.

Photo of the finished dish

Rate the recipe

Step-by-step recipe with photos

I suggest taking advantage of the summer abundance of tasty tomatoes and herbs and preparing a traditional Italian Caprese salad with mozzarella! Naturally, given the modern availability of vegetables and herbs all year round, Caprese can be prepared at any time of the year, but in the summer it always tastes especially impressive.

The most delicate mozzarella, ripe tomatoes and fragrant basil, which grew while basking in the rays of the sun - a common, but so spiritual combination that neither subtracts nor adds.

It would seem like only three basic ingredients, a pinch of spices and oil, but how delicious! Well, cooking - for 5 minutes, maximum. A perfect dish in every way! Try it!

Prepare the ingredients according to the list.

Cut the mozzarella into slices.

Also cut the tomatoes into not very thick slices.

Place tomatoes and cheese on a plate, alternating pieces. Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper. Salt – standard sea salt, freshly ground pepper.

Salad dressing is a matter of taste; there are a huge number of options. The most common option is to drizzle the salad with olive oil. An equally popular dressing is made from olive oil and balsamic vinegar - you can mix the oil and vinegar in advance or simply pour them alternately over the salad.

My version is a “greenish sauce” made from crushed basil leaves, olive oil and garlic. This dressing will appeal to basil fans, as it gives the salad an even more rich and spicy taste.

To make the “greenish sauce,” separate a few basil leaves, which will be useful for decorating the salad. Finely chop the remaining basil leaves and combine with garlic and olive oil to form a paste-like sauce. Adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding olive oil until you get the desired mixture.

Drizzle the salad with the green sauce or olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.

Add basil leaves and serve the salad.

Traditional Italian Caprese salad with mozzarella is ready! Bon appetit!

Salad “Caprese”

Not difficult to make, a very nutritious and necessary snack salad; the combination of Mozzarella cheese and tomato will give you an unforgettable taste sensation. You will need a salad and it is suitable for any occasion.

Ingredients for Caprese Salad:

Mozzarella – 250 g
Tomato – 2 pcs.
Oregano - 0.5 tsp.
Salt
Dark pepper
Olive oil - 3 tbsp. l.

Production time: 7 minutes

Number of servings: 4

Nutritional and energy value:

Ready meals
kcal 1097 kcal	proteins 46.4 g	fat 110.4 g	carbohydrates 10.1 g
Portions
kcal 274.3 kcal	proteins 11.6 g	fat 27.6 g	carbohydrates 2.5 g
100 g dish
kcal 203.1 kcal	proteins 8.6 g	fat 20.4 g	carbohydrates 1.9 g