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Is Salad Caprese anything to do with the island of Capri?

Salad Caprese Cherry tomatoes

So what’s the deal with the name Caprese? Is it anything to do with the island of Capri? Yes! Caprese simply means ‘Capri style’ – Capri being the Italian island off the coast of Campania frequented by the rich and famous, and twice by someone not rich and famous (me!). It was here that the late actress Grace Kelly popularised tight fitting cropped pants – today’s Capri pants – created by fashion designer Sonja de Lennart in 1948 … that’s if we are to believe Wikipedia. I like the story so I’m repeating it here.

As for the salad, it popped up in the early twentieth century in Capri but made its first royal appearance when presented to King Farouk in 1950 while he was staying on the island. He had a hankering for a snack one afternoon so the hotel chef kindly obliged and whipped him up a fancy-schmancy sandwich stuffed full of mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, and just like that, the Caprese was born.

It’s sublime in its simplicity, but of course you can add whatever you like to it.

Choose either cow’s milk or buffalo milk mozzarella. Ilaria and I couldn’t agree on which mozzarella we liked the most but we both agreed balsamic vinegar was a key component, although it wasn’t part of the royal version. So get yourself a bunch of sun-ripened tomatoes and a bottle each of great olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then slice, stack, drizzle and snack.

Or ring the bells …

Make a stack of sliced tomatoes and mozzarella, poking in tiny basil leaves as you go, or arrange the tomatoes and mozzarella in neat overlapping circles. Drizzle with lemon-infused extra virgin olive oil to make the tomatoes taste sweeter. For a more intense flavour, slow roast tomatoes before using (not suitable for green or heirloom tomatoes). Eat as a starter or stuff into crusty rolls for a Faroukian snack. Skewer halved bocconcini balls with cherry tomatoes and basil leaves and serve as a ‘lollypop’ dipper with vinaigrette. Stack with slices of fried eggplant (in my books, anything with eggplant tastes better). Or be daring, scoot in another direction, and use white peach slices or watermelon wedges in place of tomatoes. How you make the salad, or how you arrange it – neatly tiered, or all messed up – doesn’t matter, just get doing it now while outdoor tomatoes come into their own.

And, equally as important, however you do it, start with good ingredients …

Salad Caprese must be one of the easiest knock-‘em-dead Italian dishes around. But, just as it is with many other great Italian dishes, while the ingredient list may be short, each ingredient must be in its prime. If you live in New Zealand, there’s no point making this with cheap wishy-washy imported tomatoes (picked unripe and gas-flushed to redden in transport). What you want is tomatoes that have had the blistering sun on them, tomatoes that have ripened naturally, tomatoes with taste. And the mozzarella needs to be fresh, bobbing about in its own whey, not some rubbery processed stuff made for ‘grating’. The other essential element is a good fresh peppery extra virgin olive oil ­– and there’s no shortage of quality New Zealand produced olive oil to choose from in this country. And that’s it: three great ingredients and you’re away laughing …

See the recipe Salad Caprese and Ilaria’s Salad Caprese

Salad Caprese 3
Salad Caprese – Ilaria is thinking she’ll do another version.

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