I love Caprese. I make it at home rather often in the summer when the basil and tomatoes are abundant and yummy. I most often just top mine with salt and pepper and Arbequina olive oil. But I’ve also enjoyed it with Balsalmic vinegar. I see some recommend reducing the vinegar before using, but I’ve never tried that.
A few days ago, I had some with garlic olive oil. Not my favorite method.
So how do you like yours?
Also, anyone know the correct way to pronounce Caprese? I hear it pronounced a lot of different ways.
I like most of the ingredients but not a big tomato fan. If they’re sundried or something I might like it better, otherwise I try to finish a tomato immediately with cheese to wash the taste away.
I like the lazy version: chop tomatoes and mozzarella, mix with pesto. If I have fresh basil, I’ll make the traditional salad. It’s also good with a little fresh lemon juice squeezed on top.
Make it with heirloom tomatoes and in-house moz and I’m there! Had one as an appetizer at Sinatra (Encore Las Vegas) a few weekends ago that was borderline transcendent. They used baby basil as well as 8 different types of tomato.
Pretty much the standard: sliced tomatoes, moz, basil chiffonade, high quality EVOO, salt and pepper. This combination makes for great crostini, as well.
Pane Biancomakes one of the best Caprese sandwiches in the universe. Chris Bianco makes his own mozzarella, uses local heirloom tomatoes, and bakes his own bread every day. If you’re in central Phoenix, the weather is perfect for a lunch outside!
I make it for parties by wrapping a basil leaf around a cherry or grape tomato, sticking a toothpick through it, and adding a mini bocconcini to the toothpick. Lay them out on a plate and drizzle with some nice olive oil, grind on some salt & pepper, and you have a lovely little treat.
I usually make it with grape or cherry tomatoes and small balls of fresh mozzarella. If the tomatoes are on the larger side, I’ll cut them in half, and if I can’t find the mozz balls, I’ll use a larger size and cut into smaller pieces. Then I salt and pepper, drizzle with some good olive oil and toss in a chiffonade of basil. Then I can serve it in a bowl family style instead of fussing with the presentation.
Nava, I’m sorry. I should have been more clear. I tend to assume if I know it, everyone does! No doubt you’ve figured it out by now. It is a favorite salad for me and I almost always try it if I see it on a menu. But I don’t get out much, so that isn’t often.
How would you pronounce it and what does it mean in your language?
I’d pronounce it Caprese but I don’t know how to phonic it… a like cat, e like velvet, the first e is long
It’s Italian and means “from Capri”. In Spain you sometimes get Caprese salad or Caprese pizza (1); the menu may use the term Caprese or may use Capri. “Ensalada Caprese” seems to mean “we’re a posh Italian restaurant, we are not going to just have ensalada de tomate like the homecooking places” - the ingredients vary from restaurant to restaurant, the name is only used by Italian ones that want to be posh.
1: the restaurant where I eat most often with my coworkers has a “pizza Capri” whose toppings are black olives (added before cooking) and raw tomato bits, raw onion and green olives (added after). Evidently a take on the salad.
I love it and with a tiny bit of reduced balsamic vinegar it’s even better. Reducing the vinegar makes it sweet and smooth, basically you’re turning young vinegar into the bastardized version of a crazy expensive aged balsamic.
Since it’s fairly messy I keep a small bottle of reduced balsamic in the cupboard now for many many uses.
I do find these are decidedly less satisfying in the winter however. Tomatoes just don’t taste the same.
When I don’t have the best tomatoes, and sometimes even when I do and I have more than I can eat before they go bad, I like Ina Garten’s Roasted Tomato Caprese.
It’s a very different dish from the simple peak-season treat, but the slow roast with the vinegar and garlic brings out most of what I like about tomatoes. (I’m kind of a tomato snob; 95% of them I’d rather have roasted like this.)
You can make quite a bit of this and keep it in the fridge for several days; with a hunk of crusty bread it’s a lunch that I never get tired of.