How to Make Caprese Salad

Italian Caprese salad consists of just 3 main ingredients. But this combination is so tasty that nothing else is necessary.

5-Minute Crafts would like to share a simple recipe for Caprese salad with you and tell you how to choose the ingredients correctly. The cooking process will take just 5 minutes.

You will need

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-size tomatoes
• 2 big mozzarella balls
• a bunch of fresh green basil
• olive oil
• salt and pepper — to your taste

Gear:

• knife
• cutting board
• a flat plate for serving

Things to remember when choosing the ingredients

Caprese salad consists of very few ingredients that’s why it’s so important to choose the right ones.

• Choose only fresh basil leaves. It is preferable to only use the young shoots of green basil because they have a softer and sweeter taste.
• Tomatoes should be juicy, moderately soft, and not watery, to make sure the juice from them doesn’t spread all over the plate.
• The original Caprese recipe mentions mozzarella made of black buffalo milk, but since this is not always available, you can use fresh mozzarella cheese made from any other milk.
• You can replace big tomatoes with cherry tomatoes and use smaller mozzarella balls — the salad will remain just as tasty and will look nice too.
• Use extra virgin olive oil to season your salad.
• You can also use pesto, balsamic vinegar, or Italian dressing.

The preparation process

1. Wash the tomatoes, dry them, and slice them in rounds about 0.2 inches thick.

2. Take the mozzarella out of the package and slice it in rounds about 0.2 inches thick.

Option: If you use small mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes, you can just cut them in halves.

3. Put the sliced ingredients on a flat plate alternating slices of mozzarella and tomatoes.

4. Season the salad with salt and pepper, and drizzle it with olive oil.

5. Rinse and dry the basil leaves. Garnish the salad with them.

6. Serve the salad immediately to prevent the ingredients from losing their fresh look and taste.