Caprese salad
Ripe tomatoes, creamy fresh mozzarella and basil under good olive oil, a no-cook side that looks beautiful on a platter and needs only good tomatoes.
- 10 min total
- 10 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 6
- About $2.38 a serving
- 270 calories
- Vegetarian
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: It’s ready in 10 minutes, start to finish.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 4 tomatoes, large and ripe
- 2 fresh mozzarella, 8 oz balls
- ½ cup fresh basil, leaves
From your pantry
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
Each serving has about 270 calories, 15 g protein, 5 g carbs and 21 g fat, and costs about $2.38 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No tomatoes? Roma tomatoes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the tomatoes and mozzarella into rounds about ¼ inch thick.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Dolly’s tip: A serrated bread knife cuts ripe tomatoes without squashing them.Lay the slices on a platter, overlapping and alternating tomato and mozzarella.
Tuck a basil leaf between each pair of slices.
Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, then with the oil and the balsamic, if you like.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Serve at within an hour.
Room temperature. It means letting something sit out until it’s no longer fridge-cold, about 30 to 60 minutes for butter or eggs. It helps things blend smoothly, but never leave raw meat out over 2 hours.
How you’ll know: It feels cool, not cold, and butter dents easily when you press it.
Dolly’s tip: Keep the tomatoes out of the fridge. Cold turns them mealy and mutes the flavor.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
When you host a dinner, Dollop builds the menu around your guests’ allergies, works out a cooking timeline back from when everyone sits down, and puts it all on one grocery list.
