Caprese mozzarella

Once upon a time, back in student days, I was blown to England for a couple of weeks. I had to make some extra money, and taking advantage of the newly opened borders of the European Union was a very attractive alternative to poorly paid jobs offered to students in Poland. As it happened, that I ended up in an Italian restaurant.

I will not talk about the work itself, because it's rather a story to tell friends over a beer, not a blog topic. The work, however, had so much in common with cooking, that in addition to washing the dishes, my tasks also included preparing salads, starters and desserts. I will tell you about one of the specials, which I have learned to prepare.

Caprese mozzarella, because we are talking about this salad, is one of the most recognizable dishes of Neapolitan cuisine. Its name comes from the island of Capri. It is served as an appetizer, and its ingredients have been selected like this, to reproduce the colors of the Italian flag: white mozzarella, red tomato and green basil. An interesting fact is, that this is not the only such patriotic dish. Dokładnie tak samo jest w przypadku pizzy margherita. In the restaurant, where i worked, podawano też deser o nazwie Italy cup, consisting of scoops of cream ice cream, strawberry and mint. But I suppose, that in the latter case the dessert was an invention of the owners of the tabernacle, and not Italian imports.

But let's get back to our salad. Its ingredients are very simple: mozzarella, tomato, basil and olive oil. At work, I was preparing a variation on this composition, without the use of basil and olive oil, for that by adding a little iceberg lettuce with cucumber and black olives, and sprinkle the whole with dried parsley. Z połączenia tradycyjnego przepisu i tej nieszablonowej wariacji powstał mój własny sposób na pyszną caprese mozzarella.

Ingredients for one serving:

  • a bit of iceberg lettuce
  • black olives
  • large tomato (possibly two small ones)
  • kulka evening mozzarella
  • salt, freshly ground pepper
  • olive oil
  • fresh parsley
  • fresh basil

We start by cutting the iceberg lettuce into thin strips. Let's not be afraid to use a knife – stories of lettuce losing its vitamin after knife contact are an urban legend (the oxidation of the edge of the intersection is another story, but it doesn't happen fast enough, to worry about it, and it is more true of butter lettuce than iceberg lettuce). Then we cut the mozzarella into slices – about ten slices should come out of one ball. Also cut the tomatoes into slices – we need so much of them, how many slices of cheese.

Place the lettuce on one side of the plate. If anyone likes extras, then you can put a few more slices of cucumber on it (necessarily with the skin!) and / or diced colored peppers. Place the mozzarella and tomato slices alternately on the other side of the plate. Fill the remaining place with black olives.

We wash a few basil leaves and put them between the cheese and the tomato. Chop the parsley and use it to decorate the whole dish. Then sprinkle everything with freshly ground colored pepper and sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil (extra virgin). Enjoy your meal!