Italians love mozzarella and add it to various dishes. Without this cheese it is impossible to imagine Margherita pizza and Caprese salad, which are among the recognized masterpieces of Italian cuisine. However, there are many more appetizers that combine tender mozzarella and juicy tomatoes. These products complement each other perfectly, making a colorful and tasty duet. Supplemented with other ingredients, they create new food options that appeal to almost everyone. Salads with mozzarella and tomatoes are the hallmark of Mediterranean cuisine, and there are a variety of recipes. Among them you will find options suitable for a family dinner and a holiday table, light and satisfying.
Cooking features
The process of preparing tomato and mozzarella salads depends on the specific recipe, but it is not difficult. Even an inexperienced cook will cope with the task perfectly if he knows a few subtleties.
- The quality of the products from which the salad is prepared radically affects its taste. You can't make a tasty snack from stale cheese and watery tomatoes. No sauce can mask an unpleasant aroma or make bland foods juicy and tasty. Always pay attention to the composition of the cheese, the place of its production, and the expiration date. Good mozzarella is white, loose, and has no sour taste or smell. Choose tomatoes that are ripe, fleshy and preferably ground.
- If you love cheese and tomato dishes, you should get knives designed specifically for slicing them. With their help, you will cut the mozzarella into even cubes or slices, and when chopping the tomatoes you will not squeeze the juice out of them.
- Salads with mozzarella and tomatoes are salted in minimal quantities and only at the very last moment. Otherwise, the juice from the tomatoes will quickly end up on the plate, causing both the taste and appearance of the snack to suffer. It is also recommended to season the appetizer with sauce immediately before serving.
Mozzarella and tomatoes complement each other so well that they will be good even without additional ingredients, just season them with sauce. The introduction of other products into the salad allows you to obtain new tastes, add piquancy to the appetizer, and make it even more juicy and aromatic. These ingredients go well with any greens and salad leaves, pasta and seafood, chicken breast and ham, eggs and cucumbers.
Tomatoes with mozzarella and basil: Italian appetizer recipe
A simple combination - tomatoes with mozzarella and basil - has become a favorite light snack not only in its homeland, Italy, but throughout the world. And if you look closely, in many southern cuisines (and not only European ones) the triad “cheese-tomatoes-greens” is no less popular. A similar dish is in the arsenal of Indian and Chinese cooks; analogues can be found in Middle Eastern cuisine and the Caucasus. And basil is often used as a spicy herb.
What is the name of the dish
Mozzarella with tomatoes and basil is better known to all fans of Italian cuisine as CAPRESE salad.
Italian cuisine is unthinkable without it - moreover, it is called the culinary flag of Italy. Why? Due to the fact that the white cheese, green basil and red tomatoes included in the appetizer repeat the colors of the red, white and green national flag.
For its part, the name “caprese” has nothing to do with caprice (in Italian it is capriccio). The salad received this name from the island of Capri, which is considered the birthplace of this simple and tasty dish.
This appetizer belongs to the Italian culinary category of antipasta - but not in the sense that it somehow protests against spaghetti and other pasta.
The prefix "anti" means "before". Tomatoes with mozzarella and basil are usually served before the main course - and in Italy this is most often pasta. In America, such a serving is called an appetizer, because the purpose of such snacks is to stimulate the appetite and stimulate the secretion of gastric juice, which is necessary for the good digestion of heavier dishes.
Recipe
To prepare cheese with basil and tomatoes in Italian, you just need to take everything that is fresh, and the tomatoes are meaty and ripe. Thin-walled tomatoes full of juice will “soak” the caprese salad.
Ingredients needed to make 4 servings:
- 300 g mozzarella.
- 10 fleshy ripe tomatoes.
- A bunch of fresh basil.
- Salt and ground black pepper to taste.
Wash the tomatoes and cut into slices. We take the mozzarella cheese out of the package and cut it into slices of the same thickness in the same way - this ratio is a sign of the culinary literacy of the housewife. A sharp knife is our everything.
We pick off the green leaves from the basil sprigs. We lay out the ingredients for the caprese randomly in circles: the tomato and mozzarella can be laid out in a circle on a round dish, in a line on a long dish, they can be laid out overlapping and separately, but the tomatoes and mozzarella should be in at least minimal contact.
Layered mozzarella and tomatoes are decorated with basil leaves. The culinary Italian flag is ready! Season the caprese with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Caprese salad
Compound:
- tomatoes – 0.3 kg;
- mozzarella – 0.2 kg;
- fresh basil (green) – 30–40 g;
- olive oil – 60 ml;
- salt (optional) - to taste;
- balsamic vinegar – 5 ml.
Cooking method:
- Wash the tomatoes, dry them with a napkin, cut into circles about 3–5 mm thick.
- Wash, shake off the water from the basil, and let it dry. Pull the leaves off the stems - these are the only ones you will need.
- Remove the mozzarella from the brine (or simply from the packaging if you purchased the product without brine), cut into slices.
- Arrange tomatoes, cheese and basil leaves on a platter, alternating. Place the remaining leaves in the center of the dish.
- In a small container, combine the oil and balsamic vinegar, adding a little salt if desired. Whisk the ingredients. Pour the resulting dressing over the mozzarella, tomatoes and basil.
Italians love this salad very much and are proud of it. The colors of the products present in the snack symbolize the colors of the Italian flag. Additionally, the salad can be sprinkled with pine nuts.
