News Taffy

From time to time, I get tired of eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch. It can be a challenge finding something both healthy and satisfying. Since I make lunch for my daughter to take to school, I find she gets bored with the same old sandwich, too.

However, I really had a moment of inspiration today and, of course, I’m going to share it with you. My husband loves Caprese salads and often orders them at restaurants. I am a tomato snob, which means that not just any tomato meets my expectations. Grocery store tomatoes are out of the question as they are rock hard and tasteless. I hate to say that I have not been able to find a consistent supply of good tomatoes at the farmers‘ market either. I did find some at the beginning of summer, but they disappeared early on, and now the season is nearly done. Just because something is “homegrown” doesn’t make it taste good.

I had some fresh mozzarella that I bought earlier in anticipation of finding some good tomatoes and I really needed to use it. While grocery shopping yesterday, I finally thought, “Why not use grape or cherry tomatoes?” While most grocery store tomatoes are awful, the grape and cherry varieties are usually good. I had gotten hung up on making the salad with large slices of deep red tomatoes but finally realized small ones would do just as well, if not as pretty.

This morning, I made a Caprese salad drizzled with a bit of the olive oil and balsamic vinegar my husband bought in New York (see my previous post on olive oil on Sept. 26). Luckily, I still have basil in my garden. I sent some to school with my daughter and had some for lunch myself. Yes, that is a nice hunk of rosemary and olive oil bread you see in the photo. I got the bread at Kroger's. This salad takes about 2 minutes to make and is so delicious. You can whip this up and impress your co-workers with your fancy lunch or make your family feel special. They don’t have to know it is easy to make.

Caprese Salad 1

INGREDIENTS:
*pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
*4 oz. fresh mozzarella (do not use slices or grated mozzarella)
*balsamic vinegar
*olive oil
*several fresh basil leaves

DIRECTIONS:Cut the mozzarella into cubes. Place cheese and tomatoes on a small plate or bowl. Stack the basil leaves together and snip into strips with kitchen shears. Sprinkle basil on tomato mixture. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar very lightly over salad. Add some cracked black pepper if you like. Be careful not to use too much balsamic vinegar as it will overpower your salad, nor olive oil as you don’t want a greasy mess.

Until next week,
Lisa