Caprese Salad/Insalata Caprese from the Italian Moms Cookbook

A few weeks ago I reviewed Elisa Costantini’s wonderful book, Italian Moms: Spreading Their Art to Every Table. The book is compiled by son Frank, who gave me permission to post other recipes from the cookbook, so today I have chosen one that I first tasted in Italy five years ago. It is simple and easy as well as fresh and delicious!  (Internal link to that review: https://www.menupause.info/archives/18897).

Italian Moms is self-published by the author Elisa and her son Frank. It is available through Amazon.com. You can also buy an autographed copy from Elisa’s website: www.italianmomscooking.com. It costs $24.95.

+In the book, both the English and the Italian words for this salad appear, so in Italian it is called Insalata Caprese.

Ingredients

3 large ripe tomatoes (I would use organic-es)

1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese

1 bunch fresh basil

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

pinch of salt

Directions

Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese into 1/4 inch thick slices. Layer alternating slices of tomatoes, then basil leaf and then a mozzarella on a serving dish. Drizzle the salad with olive oil and drips of he vinegar. Garnish with a pinch of salt and serve with *prosciutto-wrapped bread sticks.

* NOTE: Since I don’t eat meat, I omitted the prosciutto-wrapped bread sticks and used my photo instead of the one from the book, which has this ingredient. I added olives instead.

P.S. Thanks to Frank Costantini for his permission to post more of his mom’s recipes.