Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad
28 August 2010 by Jean JohnsonIn Cooking Beyond Measure I purposely call the Italian salad, caprese, this: Sweet Basil with Tomato and Mozzarella. That’s because I wanted to turn it from something exotic and perhaps strange to a salad everyone can enjoy. And right now with the tomato harvest starting to come in most places, there’s nothing better than this great “do.”
Sweet Basil with Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Mid-July in Portland, Oregon, and my lettuce had bolted. But there it was, a single ripe tomato alongside sweet basil that was flourishing. Call the salad Caprese like the Italians who dreamed this up. Call it Sweet Basil with Tomatoes and Mozzarella. Either way, it’s first rate.
Recipe Note
Chop enough basil leaves to make a commodious layer of greens for a sliced fresh tomato and slices from a fat round of fresh mozzarella. Finish with a minced clove of spring garlic, coarse salt, good olive oil, lots of red wine vinegar, and black pepper.
On Sweet Basil—
Rendering sweet basil ready for the table is an art that ranges far and wide. You can leave the leaves whole since they really are bite sized. Or there’s chiffonading the leaves. Then there’s rustic quick chopping. There’s pounding them in a mortar with enough oil to break them down. So take your choice depending on your time and inclination. There’s only one way you can go wrong with fresh basil and that’s not to use it.
On the Tomato Season and Caprese—
Because I eat seasonally and wait all year long for fresh tomatoes, I do not tire of this fabulous classic salad during the peak of harvest. But should you want a variation on the theme of tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, there’s an idea on p. 165 under On a Roll, Round One.
Source: Cooking Beyond Measure: How to Eat Well without Formal Recipes, p 138
In the photograph above I used conventional mozzarella, unaware two years ago when I shot it, of the abuse factory farm cows are subjected to–ie not seeing the light of day for obscene time periods, basically turned into milk machines that stand with their 1500 pound girths on cemented barn floors as opposed to getting out to pasture daily where they can switch their tails and chew their cud.
Thus, exceptionally pleased am I to have discovered that the reputable people in the Organic Valley cooperative make a mozzarrella. It’s square not round, sorry to say. But it’s taste is all the sweeter since it helps connect the dots between our bioethics and our consumption habits. So if you haven’t connected with a local cheese maker who does mozzarella–or don’t make your own–know that Organic Valley has its products available nationally. The good stuff is ours for the asking–and for paying the extra price it costs dairy people to treat the mama cows well.
4 Responses to “Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad”
I absolutely love mozz, tomatoes, and Basil. Yours looks like heaven on a plate. I have some trouble finding Organic Valley around here. Wickenburg isn’t exactly a mecca for green, local, organic, sustainability, etc. Can hardly wait to move.
By Lindy Barnes on Aug 28, 2010
I’m hip in Wickenburg, Lindy. Kind of a throw back to lime jello molds there. Chuckle.
By Anonymous on Aug 29, 2010
btw–that was me, Jean, up there under Anonymous–don’t know why it came up that way
By Jean Johnson on Sep 22, 2010
Jean
How wonderful in more ways than to describe.
What is your schedule coming to the rereat? Is that the one near Canby and could you try to
slip by and see the Place to Be Cafe
I am awaiting hip surgery but would somehow manaage to meet you there for a few minutes if at all possible. Give me a call 503-984-0392.
Thank you
Maxine
By maxine elle on Sep 29, 2011