This is the best time of year to make Caprese salad. I have a farmers’ market a half-mile from my house and they have so many varieties of tomatoes in varying stages of ripeness right now. I always hate how the oil and vinegar in Caprese salad drips below the sliced tomatoes, so I make a chopped version that can be tossed to coat the tomatoes.
In my old age, I’ve become a huge fan of vinegar. I don’t know how it happened, but I love anything with that unique sour taste. As a result, I’ve grown to really like the vinegar-based barbecue sauces that are so prevalent in the Carolinas.
The market had bunches of parsley on sale this weekend, so I decided to make a chimichurri sauce. Chimichurri is kind of like the Argentinian version of pesto, except they put it on everything. Ketchup is probably a more apt comparison when it comes to usage. The authentic version makes a very strong sauce that needs to be toned down for most Americans. My version does that while staying pretty close to real thing.
I have issues with raw carrots and celery, so I don’t use them in my cole slaw. I’ve developed my own sweet and spicy recipe. People are always asking me for it, so here it is.
The wife and I are nuts for Insalata Caprese. We’ll make a large platter and munch on it for days. This time, we used the last of our green tomatoes to make an extra crispy version:
We served it with some sopressata. The fresh mozzarella will only get better as it soaks up more of the balsamic vinegar. We’ve made this dish with our homemade mozzarella before, but we just can’t seem to make cheese that tastes as creamy as the expensive stuff. I think it’s because the milk we buy isn’t very sweet. Does anyone have any experience with this?
