Caprese Salad is an easy Mediterranean salad prepared with a handful of fresh ingredients.
Make this Italian salad all year round and enjoy for lunch or as an appetizer or make it your own with my flavor options!
Caprese Salad makes me happy and I can eat it all the time, not just in summer.
My husband was mesmerized by the flavors the moment he was introduced to it.
He describes the tomato mozzarella and basil as a brilliant marriage between ingredients and the olive oil completes the dish.
Sounds promising right?
Jump to:
What is Caprese Salad?
Caprese Salad, Insalata Caprese in Italian, means salad from Capri, which is an Italian island.
The salad consists of fresh basil leaves, fresh buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes.
The green white and red ingredients represent the Italian flag in the Caprese Salad.
Green for the basil, White for the buffalo mozzarella and red for the tomato.
How to make it?
The best homemade caprese salad is easy to make. This is how it's done
Print the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1
Cut open the mozzarella packet and remove the cheese ball from the brine. Drip off excess water.
Cut the soft mozzarella into slices.
Step 2
Wash your tomato, pat dry and slice.
Rinse off fresh basil leaves to get rid of impurities and pat dry as well.
Step 3
Either arrange salad the traditional way by placing a basil leaves to a mozzarella slice and a tomato slice (for the Italian flag) or place all ingredients in salad bowl.
Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and black pepper (optional).
Serve your salad cold!
Ingredients
Getting and using the right ingredients for your Caprese salad is crucial!
Mozzarella
Use only fresh buffalo mozzarella, not the processed mozzarella cheese which is used on pizzas and which looks like cheddar.
Soft fresh buffalo mozzarella is turned into a ball and then kept in brine.
Soft mozzarella can be stored for a few days in the brine in the fridge. Follow the expiry date.
You can use small mozzarella balls too.
Basil
Use Italian fresh sweet basil for this recipe. That's the most common basic basil in stores.
Don't use Thai Basil or Holy Basil (Tulsi), they taste different.
Tomato
Pick a juicy red tomato variety.
You can use cherry or grape tomatoes too, which are great with small mozzarella balls.
Variations
You can enhance your salad by adding the following ingredients to it:
- leafy greens such as lettuce, arugula and baby spinach.
- strawberries {Panera Copycat]
- other fruits such as peach and watermelon
- chicken cooked such as leftover rotisserie chicken
- avocado
For the dressing, you can also sprinkle balsamic vinegar over the salad or enjoy it with basil pesto.
Another idea is to use burrata instead of a mozzarella ball in this caprese salad recipe.
FAQs
Yes, you can make this salad ahead of time. Just slice and place all ingredients into an airtight container. To serve sprinkle olive oil and seasoning over the arranged fresh ingredients.
Italians always assemble this salad according to the Italian flag. Start with a fresh leave of basil, a slice of mozzarella cheese touching a tomato slice. Repeat the process and create as many rows as you like. You can serve up a whole caprese platter!
Yes! It's a well-balanced salad with fresh ingredients that is served with olive oil. The salad is low-carb keto.
More international salads:
- Greek Salad
- German Cucumber Salad
- Mexican Salad with Corn and Black Beans
- Mediterranean Salad by unicornsinthekitchen.com
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section further below!
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📖 Recipe
Easy Caprese Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Tomato medium
- 1 large Fresh Mozzarella
- Basil Leaves fresh
- pinch Salt
- pinch Black Pepper optional
- dash Olive Oil extra virgin
Instructions
- Rinse tomatoes, pat dry and cut into medium to thick slices.
- Cut open the mozzarella cheese bag, discard all the water, shake off liquids from the cheese ball. Cut mozzarella into slices. You may cut the ball first into half if it's a large one.
- Rinse fresh basil leaves to get rid of impurities. Pat dry.
- Arrange your salad. Place basil leaves, mozzarella slice, and tomato slice alternating on a plate.
- Sprinkle olive oil, salt and if you like black pepper, over the arranged Caprese salad.
- Serve your salad cooled.
