My basil plant is growing like a weed. It is absolutely gorgeous… I bought an heirloom tomato the other day and it smelled heavenly! My first thought… CAPRESE SALAD! I mean what could be any fresher tasting as well as quick and easy to throw together?

CAPRESE SALAD

Good tomato (or tomatoes)

Fresh mozzarella cheese (it’s in a ball, slice it into nice slices)

Fresh Basil (MUST. BE. FRESH!)

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Find a good tomato (this one was rather large), and slice it (not too thin). You can lay a slice of tomato, then a slice of FRESH mozzarella cheese (if it’s not the softer fresh mozzarella the results will not be the same, I speak from experience!) and a basil leaf, or you can stack several basil leaves together, roll them up and snip them into small pieces (as I did, above). It tastes the same either way. Now drizzle the tomatoes and cheese with olive oil, and a light sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Note: I made this recipe ahead one day… popped it in the fridge… took it out when dinner was ready and the olive oil had congealed (eek), so if you make it ahead, just take it out of the fridge a few minutes before serving so the olive oil has a chance to come alive!

The other night we had boiled shrimp, corn on the cob, and this caprese salad… too good!

This is also fabulous on a good bakery baguette… nothing fresher, we used to get this at Dean & Deluca – oh, what memories!

Catch you back here tomorrow!