This is the story of my caprese, a variation of the famous traditional Italian salad. The original one indeed is made with fresh basil, but when I tried it with the wild oregano that I received from a close friend, I really felt in love with this version!
The pungency of oregano matches perfectly with the sweetness of tomato and the fresh and delicate taste of mozzarella.
This is a simple but incredibly delicious dish when made with the best ingredients and in the proper season. Summer is the best period of the year to eat caprese, because it is when you will enjoy it the most and the ingredients have the best flavor. Indeed, apart from 10 minutes, all what you need are tomatoes (the best would be a red fresh homegrown pomodoro), mozzarella or, if you are lucky enough to find it, a real mozzarella di bufala, genuine olive oil and Mediterranean dried oregano.
You can serve mozzarella & pomodoro as an appetizer or as a main dish. It's lovely in both cases ;)
Ingredients per person
1 big cuore di bue tomato (or brandywine tomato)
1 genuine mozzarella
olive oil (the best that you can afford)
dried oregano
salt
Preparation
1. Slice the fresh mozzarella and the tomato into discs of moderate thickness (0,5 cm more or less)
Tip: use a red tomato but not too ripe
2. Alternate tomato and mozzarella slices on a plate, overlapping them.
3. Sprinkle with oregano (as much as you like) and a pinch of salt.
4. Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil.
5. Let it rest for 5 minutes, just the time for the flavors to mix well.
6. Enjoy your caprese, you will live a dream!
Tip: take a piece of bread e ''fai la scarpetta'' to clean up your plate! ;)
Bravissima!
ReplyDeleteYou could write about the quality and the price of a good italian olive oil! it's better a oil from Puglia, or Liguria? what are the differences? what is the right price of a good oil in italy and in netherland, and what about the taste that it should have?
potrebbe essere un viaggio interessante anche per noi italiani!
Un bacio
Wow, this would be an educational trip for everybody. First of all..for me! Unfortunately I'm not an expert and I cannot give any proper suggestion. It's not an easy subject this one...
ReplyDeleteI cannot even say which one is the best olive oil and for which reason: I am from Veneto and we also have a good one from the Garda Region (the surroundings of the Garda Lake).
Though, I can tell you how I've found a good e.v.o. oil here in the Netherlands. After standing more than half an hour in front of a shelf, I decided to buy a bottle with the labels written only in Italian (hoping in this way that I wasn't buying a surrogate for the export market). Without paying too much attention to the price (indeed a good olive oil will never be cheap!), I've brought home an oil with a yellow-green color and an intense taste and flavor. Really delicious!
Thank you for your comment! I hope to be of more help next time ;)