Summer Time Tomato Recipes - Caprese Salad

One of the things I love the most about the summer are fresh tomatoes. On a hot summer day there is nothing like biting into a nice juicy tomato that you just picked from your garden. One of my favorite tomato recipes is Caprese Salad. I could eat this simple dish of tomatoes, basil and mozzarella with breakfast, lunch and dinner and never get sick of it. You don't even have to eat it as an appetizer, you can enjoy it as a light and healthy snack between meals.

Main Ingredients

• Tomato
• Basil
• Mozzarella

Additional Ingredients (Optional)

• Salt
• Pepper
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar

The fresher the ingredients the better. If you have a bottle of good balsamic vinegar, you know the one that's been siting in the pantry because it was so expensive you don't want to waste it, this is a dish to use it on. The same goes for the salt, plain table salt works fine, but if you have a nice course salt use that instead.

Caprese Salad if simple to make and can easily be made in 5 minutes.

1. Slice your tomato and Mozzarella into quarter inch thick slices.
2. Layer your Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella. Start with a slice of tomato on one side of your plate, then add one basil leaf and place your mozzarella on top. Stagger each layer across your plate until you have run out of slices of tomato.
3. Finish the Caprese Salad by drizzling some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar on top.
4. Enjoy the spoils of your not so hard work!

Tip: If you are using salt make sure you salt just the tomatoes and not the mozzarella. You can do this by salting all of the tomato slices together before layering or sprinkling salt over each tomato slice as you place it.

Don't be afraid to bend the rules and do your own thing. Visually instead of spreading the layers across the plate you can stack them up. You can also add your own touch to the ingredients and add your favorite ingredients.

For the non-vegetarian meat eater who that just can't stand to eat anything that Top it off with a little prosciutto or shred some bacon to make your your own bacon bits.