I don’t know what it is about tomatoes, basil and mozzarella that makes me so hungry. Perhaps it’s because those three ingredients are (in my opinion) the most pure on earth. Can you get any better? Nice ripe tomato slices, fresh basil from the back yard garden and some soft and wonderfully salty mozzarella cheese (the good stuff). It really doesn’t get any better than this. It’s so summery and tasty and perfect to eat every night of your life.
The Recipe
This recipe takes the traditional Caprese salad up a notch. It adds in some grilled zucchini slices, which is really very handy because I have zucchinis growing like crazy right now. I’ve got about nine zucchini plants that are absolutely huge and every time I look at them, I end up pulling three or four enormous zucchinis from them. It’s getting a little insane. Needless to say, we’ve been eating a lot of this vegetable around these parts.
Other than the grilled zucchini slices, this is a traditional Caprese salad recipe. It uses the ingredients I mentioned above as well as some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. It’s simple, flavorful and fun to look at.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
2 Large Zucchinis, Sliced Thick
8 Ounces Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, Sliced Thin
3 Medium Tomatoes, Sliced
1/2 Cup Fresh Basil Leaves, Chopped Coarsely
3 Tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Divided
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1 1/2 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
Step-by-Step Instructions
I’d like to thank PureWow for this recipe. Even though it’s a common one, they did give me the idea for using zucchini in it. So thank you.
Grill the Zucchini
Light up your grill and get it night and hot. Brush about one tablespoon of olive oil over the zucchini slices. Also sprinkle a few pinches of salt and pepper over the slices and when ready, place the slices on the grill rack. Cook them for about three minutes on each side or until they are tender and have those black lines on them. When ready, remove them from the grill, put them on a plate and let them cool.
Assemble the Salad
Place the grilled zucchini slices on a long plate or cutting board. Then, alternate tomato slices and mozzarella cheese slices on top of the zucchini. Sprinkle some basil on top of the tomato and cheese and then whisk the remaining olive oil and balsamic vinegar together and drizzle that on the salad as well. Season with salt and pepper and you’re finished. Serve as is or transfer each zucchini assembly to its own plate and serve that way. Enjoy!
The Final Caprese Salad
This is so good. I’m totally making more of this tonight. We ate some last night and I don’t think I had enough. It’s really the salty tomatoes and the mozzarella that does it for me. Okay, fine. The zucchini is good as well, as is the olive oil and the balsamic vinegar. Everything is good. If you decide to try this recipe out, please let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!
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