I made this Caprese Salad to accompany my Mom’s Mushroom Barley Soup when we had friends for lunch last week.
To go along with the soup and salad I served some amazing breads, a plain rustic sourdough,( however, there is nothing plain about this bread), and an incredible rustic olive sourdough bread.
Both are made by a local artisan baker known as The Little Red Hen Baker. Some good friends told me about her fantastic breads, and it has been my go to choice for delicious specialty breads for some time now. They are available at one of my favorite farmer’s markets, as well as other locations.
For the Caprese Salad, I arranged thick slices of
beautiful heirloom tomatoes on a round platter with thick slices of
fresh mozzarella cheese. To this I added randomly some small San Marzano
heirloom tomatoes (Little Napoli variety), which I sliced lengthwise,
and scattered around some bright orange cherry tomatoes, some sliced in
half and a few left whole.
I added a generous amount of freshly ground sea salt to all, and drizzled all with extra virgin olive oil and a bit of fig balsamic vinegar. I finished the colorful platter with fresh basil leaves growing in a pot on my deck.
I had forgotten how delicious and simple a Caprese Salad can be, especially key is having a variety of perfectly ripe tomatoes which have been salted enough to bring out all that flavor. And, of course, lots of fragrant , fresh basil which goes so well with the tomatoes and mozzarella.
With the arrivaI of fall I baked another of Mom’s Viennese Apple Cakes for dessert. After all, you can’t have too much of a good thing!
