If You Can't Go To Capri Make Caprese Salad

The tomatoes are here! The tomatoes are here!  Yes, it's early August and tomatoes are more than plentiful.  There are so many of them right now it's hard to think of things to make with all of them.  Okay, you have put them on sandwiches and in salads, and stuffed them and baked them and made tomato pie and enjoyed them sliced with a little salt and pepper.  My grandmother ate hers with a little sugar on them.  Then, there is canning and freezing them and there are still mountains of tomatoes.  What to do, what to do?  You surely don't want to waste any of that heavenly summertime goodness.

One of my favorite salads to make is a Caprese salad. (Insalata Caprese (salad in the style of Capri) is a simple salad from the Italian region of Campania - Wikipedia) What is a Caprese (cuhPRAYzay) salad you ask?  It is one of the easiest and tastiest salads you can make, especially with heirloom tomatoes which are plentiful and inexpensive right now.  You can also use your favorite red tomatoes like beefsteak or better boy if you prefer.

"Heirloom Tomatoes have flavors, colors and textures that are quite different than regular store bought tomatoes. These are the varieties that our grandparents and great grandparents grew many years ago that are full of anti-oxidants, vitamins and cancer preventing agents. The colors normally determine the amount of acidity, darker colors are more acidic and lighter colors are less acidic."  www.tastefulgarden.com

For the salad in the picture, I used a Cherokee Purple heirloom tomato, a Pineapple heirloom and a Green Zebra heirloom.  They are not the red tomatoes we have all become accustomed to, but are what tomatoes originally were before hybrid varieties became popular.  The Cherokee Purple is probably my favorite tomato.  It is a heavy, meaty tomato that is sweet and juicy - absolutely delicious and is so dark that it is almost purple.    The Green Zebra is a smaller tomato that is a little bit tart, but so amazing that I cannot say enough good things about it.  The Pineapple is also delicious - big, yellow,  meaty,  and super sweet like the Cherokee Purple.  We have these tomatoes growing in our garden, but they can also be purchased at local farmer's markets.

To make the Caprese salad, you will need whole fresh tomatoes, a package of fresh mozzarella cheese (I get mine at Aldi's because it's inexpensive and good), fresh basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.   Slice your tomatoes and mozzarella, putting a piece of fresh mozzarella cheese between each tomato slice.  I used 3 tomatoes and 1 package of fresh mozzarella to make the salad in the picture.  You can stack the tomatoes and mozzarella like a sandwich using 2 tomato slices with a slice of mozzarella wedged between them and a piece on top, or layer them around a serving platter like the picture above.   Take a handful of fresh basil leaves and tear them into pieces.  Sprinkle the basil over all the tomatoes then salt and pepper.  (You can leave the basil leaves whole if you prefer, just make sure each tomato slice has a basil leaf.)   Drizzle some good extra virgin olive oil over the tomatoes and you have one of the best and easiest salads you will ever make or consume!  I also like a little balsamic vinegar drizzled over mine, but I do that on my plate since Dan is not a fan.

This is a salad you can eat for your main course or you can serve it as a side dish.  My understanding is Caprese salad is traditionally eaten before a meal like an anti-pasti.  It is beautiful to look at and even better to eat!  The sweet, heavenly smell of the basil and olive oil combined with the juicy tomatoes and soft, mild mozzarella is one of the finest summertime treats I can think of.  Nature blesses us with amazing things to enjoy and this is certainly among the best.  Oh summer, how you delight us with your wondrous bounty.    Give yourself and your family a real summertime treat.  Make them a wonderful Caprese salad.  Simple, easy, made with love.  There is nothing better.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard

How To Float A Tomato Boat

What is one of the top five best things about summer?
Tomatoes!  Red, ripe, juicy tomatoes.  Not the mealy, mushy ones you get during the winter at the grocery store.  No sir, red, ripe, firm, delicious tomatoes!

You can grow tomatoes in your garden, or in pots, or you can purchase home grown tomatoes at local farmer's markets.  They are so super delicious.  You can cook with them, can them or eat them raw in salads, on sandwiches or like an apple if you prefer.  My grandparents used to pick them right off the vine and eat them - just like an apple.

The varieties are endless.  There are beefsteak tomatoes which are the great big ones used mostly for slicing and eating.  There are varieties like Better Boy, Big Boy, Big Girl, Celebrity and Supersonic.  And then there are the crown jewels of tomatoes - the heirlooms.  Yes, they are incredible.  They are not red and round and well shaped like the varieties mentioned above.  Some are small, some are medium sized and some are big and knobby.  You look at them and wonder if you really should eat something that misshapen, but I am here to tell you  - do it!

Heirloom tomatoes are the way tomatoes were before they became hybrid varieties.  They have so much flavor that there is no match for the varieties we are used to consuming.  They are sweet and delicious.  They come in a variety of colors - some are almost purple like the Cherokee Purple and the Black Russian, the Oxacon Jewel is yellow and very meaty and delicious, and Brandywine is one of the red varieties.  There is even a white heirloom tomato.  Even though they may look "suspect" to you, give them a try because the flavor they deliver makes them worth every penny you spend.

I like to watch the Food Network shows.  They impart a lot of cooking knowledge and I have learned to branch out in my culinary pursuits.  Recently, Guy Fieri, (one of my favorites) made what he called heirloom tomato tacos.  They looked so good they made my mouth water.  I like to call them tomato boats because that is what they look like to me!  I made some of these for the Fourth of July and they were quite a hit.  This is a wonderful use of the myriad varieties of tomatoes available during the summer.  It is an easy recipe and super delicious.  Looks pretty on a plate too!  I did a little variation of my own, by substituting fresh mozzarella cheese for his recommended gorganzola. (blue cheese)  We are not fans, but we do love fresh mozzarella.  Here are the ingredients and the recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound mixed heirloom tomatoes
1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
2 tsps balsamic vinegar, good quality
kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chiffonade (I used basil from my herb garden)
1 head romaine lettuce, inner leaves only
1/2 cup fresh  mozzarella cheese, diced  (or gorganzola crumbles if you prefer)

Dice tomatoes, put in a bowl.  Add 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pinch of salt, some cracked black pepper and basil that you have cut into small slivers (chiffonade).  Mix.  Remove outside leaves of the romaine lettuce and cut the bottom off the head allowing the inside leaves to separate.

Fill each leaf with about 1/4 cup heirloom tomato mixture, lay on plate and place some of the diced fresh mozzarella on each boat.  One more pinch of salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Here is a close up of what they look like.

That's it!  These are divine!  You could eat these for a meal or serve them as a salad.  My "son- in -love" said he would have been perfectly happy to just eat these for his dinner.  You can doctor them up a bit if you prefer by adding some crab meat, or diced shrimp.  Oh, that would be wonderful!  So cool and refreshing and the tomatoes are just indescribable!

I am buying tomatoes at the farmer's market at the present while we wait for all of our tomatoes to start coming in.  We have 22 plants in the garden of all varieties.  There are Better Boys, heirlooms of all varieties, some grape and roma tomatoes.  I CANNOT wait!  There will be canning also to use in soups, stews and sauces during the cold winter months.  

Enjoy this new variation on a salad this summer during the hot and muggy months while tomatoes are plentiful.  You won't even have to turn on a stove when you serve these.  The cool crispness of the lettuce with the juicy tomatoes and fresh basil, along with the fresh mozzarella cheese and the tangy vinaigrette is worth the little effort it takes to put these together.  I placed mounds of my homemade pickled beets between the tomato boats which made a really pretty salad platter.   You could add whatever you want to fill out the platter.  Then, eat them like a taco!   Hope this floats your tomato boat this summer!  Enjoy.  

Everyday Donna

Things To Remember:

Slow down, calm down, don't hurry, don't worry, trust the process.