Caprese Salad With Balsamic Dressing

Depending on the serving size, it can serve as a tasty appetizer or a filling main course. You can even make it a few hours ahead of time if you need to. Salads are a summer staple and with good reason. They are fresh-tasting, easy to make, and don’t require heating up the oven or slaving over a hot stove. 🥗 Caprese salad (pronounced cah-preh-seh) is quick, fresh, and filling. It’s one of those super-simple dishes that are surprisingly delicious, especially if you use the freshest in-season ingredients. Such a wonderful flavor combination! I’ve come to strongly associate this fresh-tasting dish with summer.

Ingredients

You’ll only need a few ingredients to make this tasty salad. The exact measurements are included in the recipe card below. Here’s an overview of what you’ll need: Fresh tomatoes: They need to be truly red, ripe yet firm. Certainly not pale and mealy. Fresh mozzarella: The fresher you can find, the better it will taste. Basil leaves: Pick beautiful green ones, free of blemishes and brown spots. Kosher salt and black pepper: If using fine salt, you should reduce the amount you use. Olive oil: Extra-virgin olive oil is so flavorful - I highly recommend using it in this salad. Balsamic vinegar: In many other recipes it would be OK to use red wine vinegar instead, but here you really do need to use thick, rich, almost-sweet balsamic vinegar. Dijon mustard: It’s thicker, creamier, and less vinegary than yellow mustard. It helps the dressing emulsify.

Instructions

Making this caprese salad is easy! Scroll down to the recipe card for detailed instructions. Here are the basic steps: Whisk the dressing ingredients and set the dressing aside. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice the tomatoes and the mozzarella. Arrange the tomato and mozzarella slices on a platter as shown in the photos, alternating and overlapping each other. Arrange the basil leaves on top. Sprinkle the salad with salt and pepper. Drizzle it with the dressing, and serve.

Expert tip

As always when it comes to simple recipes, the individual ingredients must be of high quality to make this simple salad as good as it can be. So when you make this salad, I recommend that you follow these suggestions: Make sure you use good olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar. Choose Kosher salt or sea salt rather than table salt. Pick fresh whole-milk mozzarella, as fresh as you can get. Most importantly, use good tomatoes. Big, red and ripe but firm, not mealy, and definitely not refrigerated. If your tomatoes did spend some time in the fridge, take them out of it and bring them to room temperature. And here’s a tip from reader Lee (thank you, Lee! ❤️): Never put fresh basil in the refrigerator. It will become brown and wilted fast in there. Put it in a plastic bag on the kitchen counter and you’ll have it for about a week.

Frequently asked questions

Serving suggestions

This salad is traditionally served as an appetizer. But at home, I either serve it as a side dish with dinner (it goes really well with oven chicken kabobs) or as a main course for lunch.

Storing leftovers

I don’t recommend keeping leftovers for longer than a day or so. So it’s OK to prepare this salad ahead of time, but I would only make it a couple of hours before I plan on serving it. It can turn soggy overnight in the fridge. If you do make it in advance, it’s best to add the basil and the dressing at the very last minute, right before serving the salad.

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