Caprese Salad

The key to a good caprese salad it to buy everything as fresh as possible. A Caprese salad is just as good being simply dressed with a little salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. But I decided to make a balsamic vinnagrette to liven it up. It was finally warm out last night, so this salad tasted like summer.

Serves about 2-3

Salad:
6 small tomatos on the vine. I believe these were Campari
1/2 fresh mozzarella log. Or you can buy the mini pearl ones which are really awesome too.
8-12 fresh basil leaves.

Dressing:
2 cloves of garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
dash of italian seasoning blend
salt, pepper

Dice the tomatoes into bite size wedges and place in a bowl. Cube the fresh mozzarella into bite size pieces, then place in the bowl. Roll the basil leaves together and chop finely. Run your knife through it a couple more times until finely chopped and place in the bowl. Season with a little salt and pepper. Toss everything together and set aside.

Get out a small bowl for the dressing. Mince the garlic, add into the bowl with mustard. I don't measure so I wish I could tell you better for how much olive oil and vinegar I use. But remember to use double the oil to one part vinegar. Since this was just a salad for 2, I would just use 1/8 cup vinegar, to 1/4 cup oil, which is plenty of liquid. In the 1/8 vinegar I used mostly balsamic with just a splash of red wine vinegar. With a fork mix all the ingredients together. Then drizzle in just a little bit of honey (1 teaspoon or less) to take a little edge off the vinegar. Place in a dash of italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Spoon over the Caprese salad. You can serve right away or you can let the dressing marinate the salad for a few minutes prior to serving.