Caprese Salad

This is a really quick and easy salad to throw together. It is a summer salad from the island of Capri in Italy. We have visited Capri but don't remember the salads being any better there than anywhere else. The island is mostly known for their Grotta Azzurra - "Blue Grotto" (see below). Jess and I traveled through Italy for 3 weeks about 4 years ago and it is where I really started getting into food, (not surprisingly it is when I started getting fat as well), and we learned that one of the best things you can do when traveling is to travel with luggage light enough to carry - I should be in an ad for MEC with both Jess and my bags on while waiting for a ferry back to the mainland.

It was a simple way to showcase my home made mozzarella and is a great cold salad to have on a hot night. My favourite part of it is the burst of freshness from the basil and tomato and the mix of vinegar and oil. You can eat it with a fork and knife or put the whole stack on a cracker or crostini .

Ingredients:
I started with a couple tomatoes and tried to use up all the cheese

• mozzarella cheese
• tomato
• basil
• olive oil 
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• black pepper

Directions:

1.  If you are ambitious, you can thicken the balsamic vinegar by simmering it with some honey.
2. Slice the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper.
3. Top with a full basil leaf and slice of mozzarella.
4. Drizzle with the balsamic and olive oil.