In the heat of summer, if I ask Ron what he’d like for dinner, I already know his answer: Caprese salad! That lovely Italian mix of lush summer tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh picked basil is his favorite. And I’m happy because it’s a vegetarian meal (not to mention, dead easy to fix.).
But after so many Caprese salads, I start looking for ways to up my game. Happily, there are many.
Caprese salad lives and dies by the perfect ingredients. Great summer tomatoes, of course, and basil from the garden. Mozzarella from the Italian couple at our Saturday Cluny market, though I don’t mind the grocery store version. It’s best to nap it with a balsamic reduction, nice and thick so it doesn’t just flood the plate. I used to make my own (just reduce balsamic by simmering it until it thickens), but now one can buy thickened versions. And of course, a tasty olive oil.
So after you’ve gathered your basic ingredients, it’s time to play. One way is to use the newly trendy burrata. If you haven’t encountered it, burrata is mozzarella with cream. It it comes in a ball, in the thinnest of sacs. When you break it open it collapses into a creamy ooze that you can eat with a spoon.
Next we shall consider the architecture of the salad. You can arrange your tomatoes in a circle with your burrata in the center, or you can overlap your slices of tomato and mozzarella in the traditional way, and shower it all with basil. You could serve it on a bed of romaine or arugula, or make it into a chopped salad. Or you could stack it into a tall tower and drizzle it with pesto.
Make your Caprese with a tumble of grape tomatoes, or a mix of heirloom varieties. Go wild and make it with fried green tomatoes. You can put it all on a pizza crust, and bake it. I once ordered a vegetarian burger at a French restaurant (the one and only time I’ve seen one on a menu here), and this is what arrived: a beautiful homemade sesame seed hamburger bun, stuffed to the brim with caprese salad. Not exactly a burger, but Miam miam!
Consider slipping some other ingredients on to your arranged salad plate. Here are some possibilities:
avocado slices
red onion slices
roasted peppers (yellow or orange ones make a pretty contrast)
very thinly sliced raw zucchini or yellow squash
thinly sliced scallions
sliced radishes
olives or capers
cucumbers
additional fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, tarragon, chives
Then there is the question of a dressing. I don’t like to veer too far from the traditional here. But sometimes, instead of the traditional balsamic and olive oil, I nap it with lemony French Dressing #1.
I encountered a very simple but assertive dressing recipe in the New York Times recently, in a recipe by a Parisian chef for a composed chicken salad. I tweaked it a bit and it’s now my new favorite Caprese dressing, as it happens to fit that classic salad perfectly.
Now my dear readers, how do you like your Caprese salad?
Photos: top, a traditional Caprese with the addition of avocados and chopped parsley. Center, a restaurant version from Nice, in the round. Left, a friend's Not-quite-Caprese, made with feta, cucumbers, red onions, and capers.
RECIPE: Caprese Salad with Balsamic Shallot Dressing
Make your salad in any of the above ways. For the dressing I used a combo of balsamics here, but regular balsamic works fine if that’s what you have on hand.
1/3 cup chopped shallots
1 tablespoon reduced balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and fresh ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
Place the shallots in a bowl. Add the vinegars and lemon juice and allow to soften for about 10 minutes. Add the salt and pepper, and whisk in the olive oil. Stir in the parsley, and you’re ready to drizzle.
In the COMMENTS: Clyde, a full outdoor kitchen would be pretty steamy in Charleston, too. Julie, I've never heard of a basement summer kitchen, how interesting. June, my neigbor and I figured out that that picture (from last year's party) includes potato salad, melon with jambon cru, tiny grey shrimp with a homemade mayonnaise, and we can't figure out the tart–some kind of pizza, I think. Natalia, I like that "spirited conversation under the stars". Exactly!
Favorite Reads: If you, like me, need to (eternally!) brush up on your French, our reader Herm has a recommendation: a free on-line program call Duolingo. He's well and happily into it, and at his grandson's high school, they use it in language classes. Merci for the tip, Herm.
10 thoughts on “Reconsidering the Caprese Salad”
Looks delicious! Hope you are having a wonderful summer too.
Thank you for this post! I need some new ideas for summer salads as my (actually) skinny husband is insisting on vegetarian meals several times a week. We love caprese salad but I’d like a little variety and I’m almost out of ideas. One thing I do is add high quality anchovies (I suppose I could use Spanish tuna in oil as well.). Whether I use anchovies (the kind that come in a glass jar from Whole Foods) or not, you can add the oil they are preserved in to your dressing. I did this to my tomato and basil salad that I made for French friends in the Rousillon last year. I didn’t tell them I did this as they were adamant about hating anchovies. They loved the salad and never expected my “secret” ingredient. I added whole anchovies to my tapenade and they also were fooled.
Love a Caprese…have you seen the Balsamic Perles….look like caviar but filled with balsamic…beautiful garnish and when they pop in your mouth it is a wonderful surprise. We buy them at a winery in Taradeau but they are now available in the USA….plus cher.
It’s funny you should do this Caprese Plus, as I called it. I just wrote an article about simplicity and REAL Italian recipes without frills or embellishments and god forbid putting cream in Spaghetti alla carbonara.
BUT—the Caprese classic can certainly be fun with avocados and more, as you suggest.
Especially in summer when there are lovely things like fresh lemon thyme and cucumbers and arugula and more.
A lovely article. Un-classic or not!
Our take on this is to put olive oil and lemon juice in a blender with a couple of cloves of garlic and most of the basil leaves and then whiz it into a lovely green dressing.
Finish by garnishing each serving with three or four anchovies, not the brown ones out of a tin but those lovely herby silvery ones out of a jar.
By the way Lynne, until I read your blog today, I never knew the dish was called Caprese Salad!
I love Caprese salad just the way you do in your top photo, so simple. I make my own balsamic glaze. I completely forgot about this salad & even though it’s morning here I’m longing for this now. That chicken recipe looks like a keeper. Thank you for another lovely post.
There’s a sliver of summer when both peaches (or nectarines) and heirloom tomatoes are perfection—layer slices of them with mozzarella and top with basil and a light vinegar and oil dressing (white balsamic is my favorite).
I like to keep it simple, but yes indeed, with some Buratta cheese! What a great invention that was… I only wish there was a way to keep tomatoes fresh for a few months!!
Well, I read half of your article. I’m hungry and going to the refrigerator. Good blog, as always. Happy summer!
Thanks so much for the recipe for the “real” French dressing!! And also thank you for introducing me (through Herm)to French lessons from Duolingo! It’s just what I’ve been looking for! I should be fairly fluent by the time I take my next trip to France!