[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":375},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:insalata-caprese":3,"recipe:country:italy":158},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"pronunciation":7,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"emoji":10,"summary":11,"intro":12,"story":13,"whyThis":14,"tips":19,"substitutions":26,"variations":39,"serveWith":49,"storage":51,"faq":52,"equipment":68,"baseServings":71,"prepMinutes":72,"cookMinutes":73,"restMinutes":74,"difficulty":75,"course":76,"diet":79,"mainIngredients":82,"ingredients":87,"instructions":114,"nutrition":132,"images":140,"keywords":150,"publishedAt":156,"updatedAt":156,"authorSlug":157},"insalata-caprese","Insalata Caprese (Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad)","Insalata caprese","in-sah-LAH-tah kah-PREH-zeh","italy","Campania","🍅","Capri's three-ingredient plate: thick slices of ripe tomato, torn buffalo mozzarella and basil, dressed with nothing but good olive oil and salt applied at exactly the right moment.","Insalata caprese is tomato, mozzarella and basil on a plate, and it is genuinely difficult to make well — not because the technique is hard but because there is nowhere to hide. A ripe summer tomato at room temperature tastes sweet and faintly savoury; a refrigerated winter one tastes of cold water, and no amount of olive oil fixes that. The mozzarella should be soft enough to tear and still weeping a little milk. Assembled properly the salad tastes of three clean flavours in balance, with a pool of tomato juice, oil and mozzarella whey at the bottom of the plate that is arguably the best part.","The caprese is named for Capri, the island off the Sorrentine peninsula, and it is a twentieth-century dish rather than an ancient one — mozzarella and tomato only came together in Campanian cooking once both were everyday ingredients. The most repeated origin story has it invented as a patriotic plate in the colours of the Italian flag, and versions of that claim attach it to specific hotels and specific decades. None of it is well documented, so it is safest to say the tricolour reading is real in how Italians talk about the dish today, and unproven as history.\n\nWhat is not in doubt is the ingredients' pedigree. Mozzarella di bufala campana, made from the milk of water buffalo raised in the plains around Caserta and Salerno, carries protected designation status and tastes markedly different from cow's-milk fior di latte: tangier, softer, wetter. The San Marzano and Cuore di Bue tomatoes of the same region ripen in intense summer heat with relatively little water, which concentrates their sugars. Put simply, the caprese is a dish designed to show off two protected local products, which is why it collapses so badly when made with supermarket substitutes in December.\n\nIn Campania it is eaten as an antipasto or as a light lunch with bread, almost always in summer, and almost never with the additions that have accumulated abroad. Balsamic vinegar, the most common of those additions, is from Modena, several hundred kilometres north, and its sweetness flattens the tomato's own acidity. Italians are not universally opposed — plenty of restaurants serve it — but if you want the salad as Capri makes it, the dressing is olive oil, salt and nothing else.",[15,16,17,18],"Tomatoes are salted first and left to sit, which draws out juice and seasons them through rather than only on the surface.","Everything is brought to room temperature before assembly — the difference between a flat plate and a fragrant one.","Mozzarella is torn, not sliced, so the ragged surfaces hold oil and tomato juice instead of shedding them.","Explains what to do when good tomatoes are simply not available, instead of pretending the salad works year-round.",[20,21,22,23,24,25],"Never refrigerate the tomatoes. Below about 12 °C the compounds responsible for tomato aroma stop being produced and existing ones degrade, and the damage is not reversible.","Take the mozzarella out of the fridge 30–60 minutes ahead and let it sit in its own liquid. Cold mozzarella is squeaky and tastes of almost nothing.","Salt the tomato slices and wait ten minutes before assembling — the juice they release becomes part of the dressing.","Tear the basil with your fingers rather than chopping it. A knife bruises the leaves and turns the cut edges black within minutes.","Use your best olive oil here, poured on generously at the end. In a dish with three ingredients, the oil is a fourth ingredient, not a lubricant.","Assemble within a few minutes of serving. Left standing, the mozzarella firms up and the tomato goes limp.",[27,31,35],{"original":28,"swap":29,"note":30},"Mozzarella di bufala","Fior di latte (cow's milk mozzarella), or burrata","Fior di latte is milder and firmer and works perfectly well. Burrata makes a richer, creamier plate that is delicious but no longer really a caprese.",{"original":32,"swap":33,"note":34},"Large ripe tomatoes","Ripe cherry or datterini tomatoes, halved","Small tomatoes are usually the better bet outside peak season because they concentrate sugar more reliably. Halve them, salt them and treat them exactly the same way.",{"original":36,"swap":37,"note":38},"Fresh basil","Fresh mint, or rocket","Both are eaten with tomato and mozzarella in southern Italy. Dried basil is not a substitute here and will taste of dust against fresh ingredients.",[40,43,46],{"name":41,"description":42},"Caprese with oregano","Common along the Amalfi coast: a pinch of dried Sicilian oregano over the tomatoes alongside the basil, which adds a dry, resinous note that suits very sweet tomatoes.",{"name":44,"description":45},"Insalata tricolore","The same three colours with avocado standing in for part of the tomato — a later, non-Italian variation that has become a restaurant standard in its own right.",{"name":47,"description":48},"Caprese skewers","Cherry tomato, small mozzarella ball and a basil leaf on a stick, for standing-up eating. Salt the tomatoes before threading or the seasoning never reaches them.",[50],"Bread with a firm crust to wipe up the tomato-and-oil pool left on the plate, and a cold glass of Falanghina or another dry Campanian white.","Caprese does not keep and should not be made in advance. Once salted and dressed, the tomatoes shed water continuously and the mozzarella tightens, so a plate left for an hour is visibly worse than one assembled to order. You can slice the tomatoes and salt them up to 20 minutes ahead and let the mozzarella come to room temperature for an hour, but oil, basil and assembly belong at the last minute. Leftovers are best repurposed: pile them onto toasted bread with the collected juices and eat them as bruschetta the same day.",[53,56,59,62,65],{"question":54,"answer":55},"Should I put balsamic vinegar on a caprese?","Not if you want the Capri version. The traditional dressing is extra virgin olive oil and salt, and balsamic's sweetness and dark colour compete with the tomato rather than supporting it. That said, balsamic on caprese is now common outside Italy and in some Italian restaurants, so it is a matter of taste rather than a rule — just taste the salad without it first before deciding you need it.",{"question":57,"answer":58},"What can I do if my tomatoes are not very good?","Salt them and let them sit for 15–20 minutes, which draws out water and concentrates the flavour that is there, and consider a very small pinch of sugar if they are sour rather than bland. Switching to cherry or datterini tomatoes usually helps more than anything else, since small varieties tend to be sweeter out of season. If the tomatoes are genuinely tasteless, make a different dish — no technique rescues them.",{"question":60,"answer":61},"What is the difference between mozzarella di bufala and fior di latte?","Mozzarella di bufala is made from water buffalo milk, mainly in Campania, and is softer, wetter and noticeably tangier with a higher fat content. Fior di latte is the same process using cow's milk: milder, firmer, drier and cheaper. Both are fresh mozzarella and both belong in a caprese, but bufala is what the dish was built around and is worth seeking out when tomatoes are at their best.",{"question":63,"answer":64},"Can I make caprese ahead for a party?","Only partly. Slice the tomatoes and salt them up to twenty minutes ahead, and bring the mozzarella to room temperature an hour ahead in its liquid. Do not assemble, oil or add basil until people are ready to eat, because the salad starts leaking water immediately and basil blackens fast. Assembly takes two minutes, so it is easy to do at the last moment even with guests present.",{"question":66,"answer":67},"Why is my mozzarella rubbery instead of soft?","Either it is low-moisture mozzarella intended for pizza, which is a different product entirely, or fresh mozzarella served straight from the fridge. Fresh mozzarella needs thirty to sixty minutes out of the cold, sitting in its own brine, before the fat softens and the flavour opens up. Store it in its liquid, never dry in cling film, and use it within a day or two of opening.",[69,70],"Sharp serrated knife for the tomatoes","Wide flat serving plate",4,15,0,10,"easy",[77,78],"appetizer","side",[80,81],"vegetarian","gluten-free",[83,84,85,86],"tomato","mozzarella","basil","olive-oil",[88,92,95,98,101,105,109],{"ref":83,"qty":89,"unit":90,"name":91},600,"g","ripe large tomatoes, at room temperature, in 1 cm slices",{"ref":84,"qty":93,"unit":90,"name":94},400,"mozzarella di bufala, at room temperature in its liquid",{"ref":85,"qty":96,"unit":90,"name":97},20,"fresh basil, largest leaves picked",{"ref":86,"qty":71,"unit":99,"name":100},"tbsp","best extra virgin olive oil",{"qty":102,"unit":103,"name":104},null,"to taste","flaky sea salt",{"ref":106,"qty":102,"unit":103,"name":107,"optional":108},"black-pepper","coarsely ground black pepper",true,{"ref":110,"qty":111,"unit":112,"name":113,"optional":108},"oregano",1,"pinch","dried oregano",[115,119,123,126,129],{"title":116,"text":117,"timerSeconds":118},"Bring everything to room temperature","Take the mozzarella out of the fridge at least 30 minutes ahead and leave it sitting in its own liquid. Keep the tomatoes on the counter, never in the fridge, so their aroma is fully developed by the time you cut them.",1800,{"title":120,"text":121,"timerSeconds":89,"tip":122},"Slice and salt the tomatoes","Cut the tomatoes into 1 cm slices with a serrated knife, discarding the tough stem end. Lay them on the serving plate, season with flaky salt, and leave for 10 minutes until beads of juice have gathered on the surface and pooled slightly on the plate.","That released juice is half the dressing, so do not drain it off.",{"title":124,"text":125},"Tear the mozzarella","Lift the mozzarella from its liquid, shake off the excess, and tear it into rough pieces roughly the size of the tomato slices. The torn surfaces should look ragged and slightly stringy, with a little milk still running from the centre.",{"title":127,"text":128},"Assemble the plate","Tuck the mozzarella between and over the tomato slices so both are visible, then tear the basil leaves in half by hand and scatter them across the top. Work quickly and do not press anything down.",{"title":130,"text":131},"Dress and serve straight away","Pour the olive oil generously over the whole plate in a slow thread, add a final pinch of salt, and grind over pepper or crumble the oregano if using. Bring it to the table immediately, with bread for the juices at the bottom.",{"calories":133,"protein":134,"carbs":135,"fat":136,"fiber":137,"sugar":138,"sodium":139,"estimated":108},340,18,7,27,2,5,520,[141,144,146,148],{"src":142,"alt":143},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Finsalata-caprese\u002Fhero.jpg","Plate of sliced ripe tomatoes with torn buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil leaves and olive oil",{"src":145,"alt":143},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Finsalata-caprese\u002Fhero-16x9.jpg",{"src":147,"alt":143},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Finsalata-caprese\u002Fhero-4x3.jpg",{"src":149,"alt":143},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Finsalata-caprese\u002Fhero-1x1.jpg",[151,152,153,154,85,155],"caprese","tomato mozzarella salad","capri","buffalo mozzarella","summer 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leaves",[264,265,266,267,268,84,269],"pizza","margherita","naples","neapolitan","pizza dough","home oven",{"slug":271,"title":272,"nativeName":273,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"baseServings":165,"prepMinutes":195,"cookMinutes":166,"restMinutes":96,"difficulty":169,"course":274,"diet":275,"mainIngredients":276,"images":278,"keywords":282,"publishedAt":156,"updatedAt":156,"authorSlug":157},"melanzane-alla-parmigiana","Melanzane alla Parmigiana (Baked Aubergine with Tomato and Mozzarella)","Melanzane alla parmigiana",[255],[80,81],[277,83,84,177,85],"eggplant",[279],{"src":280,"alt":281},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fmelanzane-alla-parmigiana\u002Fhero.jpg","Baked aubergine parmigiana in a dish, browned cheese on top and visible layers of aubergine and tomato in a cut portion",[283,284,285,286,287,288],"parmigiana","melanzane","aubergine bake","eggplant parmesan","campania","vegetarian 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