Caprese Salad

This salad is so simple, it almost seems foolish to write a post about it. However, with really good fresh ingredients, this salad is so awesome that it needs to be shared. I had never made this salad until last week. We went to the farmers market and bought some heirloom tomatoes that needed a dish that would showcase these beautiful tomatoes. We have basil growing on the back deck so all we needed was some mozzarella. We went to the store and picked up a package of Belgioioso Unwrap & Roll Mozzarella Cheese.

The Unwrap & Roll is a long strip of mozzarella that you unroll and then fill in with you ingredients. When you’re done, you just roll it up, slice it and serve. We used one large heirloom tomato for two people and served it as a side dish next to grilled chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 or 2 Fresh tomatoes
• 1 handfull of fresh basil
• 1 package of Unwrap & Roll mozzarella (or two balls of fresh mozzarella)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• salt & pepper to taste

  

Directions

• Clean and dry your basil.
• Slice your tomato into thick slices
• Unroll the strip of mozzarella onto a clean, dry cutting board
• Cut the strip in half, so you have 2 strips, each about 10 inches long. We only used one strip and one tomato. So, if you have more people to feed, count on one tomato for each 10 inch strip.
• The strip is about 6 inches wide by 10 inches long. We fit in two rows of three slices of tomatoes.
• Place the basil on top of the tomatoes, just scattered around.
• Sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste
• Roll up the strip and it’s ready to slice and serve. We put ours in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes but you could leave it at room temperature.
• Slice the roll into little medallions. We cut our strips about 1 1/2 inch wide.

  

• Layer the slices on a dish then drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We used a white balsamic vinegar, but that was mainly for cosmetics to keep it nice and fresh looking.