This particular recipe is my favorite “salad” of all time. Maybe this is because it doesn’t contain any lettuce and I am not too much of a lettuce person. This variation of the caprese salad is especially fabulous with locally grown in-season tomatoes. I ate the one pictured last night, and felt like I could have licked my plate at the end. Now that is a good salad. And if you love it as much as I do you can get creative with different ways to serve it. Check out the panini I made (pictured below), which is just the salad ingredients melted inside two pieces of whole-wheat bread and served with balsamic vinegar for dipping.
Caprese Salad
Ingredients
- 1 tomato, ripe, any variety
- mozzarella cheese, (if you can swing it the more expensive stuff is worth it…especially the balls of mozzarella floating in water)
- 1 handful basil, leaves only
- balsamic vinegar
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
- 1 basil pesto, see link below
Instructions
- Cut the tomatoes and mozzarella into slices about ¼ inch thick
- Arrange the tomatoes flat on a plate, top each one with a slice of mozzarella, and then either with whole or sliced basil leaves
- Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, if desired
-
Add a dollop or two of basil pesto to the plate
- Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar
Hint: If I am in a hurry I just chop everything up into pieces and throw it all together in a bowl. It tastes just the same that way!
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This was easy and delicious. I’m using this for a pesto pasta that I will top with tomato and parmesan.
Love the basil pesto salad. The recipe on this page is wrong, however. It should say 4 T of olive oil. Thanks for the yummy recipes!
Quick and easy just used healthier salad recipe, my all family members loved it.
I was wondering if you have more lettuce free salad ideas?
Hi. Here are a couple: https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/06/14/recipe-lime-cilantro-quinoa-salad/ and https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/07/01/whole-wheat-pasta-salad-%E2%80%93-two-ways/.
I’m very interested in more unprocessed recipes please.