How To Make: The Perfect Caprese Salad

Caprese salad is so easy to make, and it fits into literally any situation:

• You wanna have a light lunch? No problem.
• You want an elegant appetizer for a dinner party? Say no more.
• You’re suffering through a horrible hangover and you really need something quick to eat but you’re already through 2 bags of potato chips? Caprese got you.

Caprese is also the go-to elegant-sounding salad that overpriced Italian restaurants employ; everyone has that one friend who orders something like this at an Italian restaurant and goes to Mount Everest-like lengths to pronounce the R’s like a real Italian (definitely not me though).

Luckily, caprese is not restricted to your local Italian and you can make it yourself in around 3 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 Mozzarella cheese
• 2 tomatoes
• ~80 grams of pesto (enough to be spread around the mozzarella)
• 2-3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
• A handful of fresh basil leaves (dried basil works as well if you don’t have it fresh)

If you’re feelin extra bougie today, you can easily supercharge the recipe:

• Switch mozzarella with burrata, hands down the best cheese ever made
• Instead of being lazy like me, you can make the pesto yourself: it’s reaaally easy and just requires a few more ingredients (pine nuts, parmesan, fresh basil leaves).
• Treat yourself and switch your ordinary balsamic vinegar with a ridiculously expensive one, like the one in the picture below that cost 8£. Believe me, you will taste the difference.
• As mentioned below, you can also create a balsamic glaze instead of just pouring it over the dish normally, but that’s completely optional.

1. Ideally the mozzarella should actually be round but unless you have some kind of relative from Napoli who supplies you with premium mozzarella, chances are that won’t be the case. So, I cut it length-wise (I think?) so the slices have the largest surface area.

Long explanation aside, cut the tomatoes into slices as well. The goal is to have the same shape for the mozzarella and tomato slices.

2. (Optional) As mentioned, if you want to impress someone, you can also create a balsamic glaze. All you have to do is pour a bit of balsamic vinegar into a pot, and put it on low heat. Do not cover.

The liquid should start to evaporate a bit, and the vinegar should turn into a thicker consistency, enough to stick to your spoon.

One thing, do not do what I do every time I do this and let it simmer for too long: it’ll either burn and stick to the bottom of your pan like glue or turn too solid and not liquid enough. ~5 minutes should do the trick.

3. Easy enough! You can organize your mozzarella and tomato slices any way you want to, then add the basil leaves and pesto on top. Finally, drizzle your balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the plate and you’re done!