The Salad of Summer Salads
It’s not the official start of summer yet, but down in Savannah the summer vibes have hit. With summer comes parties and casual gatherings, so if you’re hosting or going as a guest, make this classic caprese salad with homemade pesto and burrata. It’s colorful, delicious, and simple while not too heavy to indulge in on a nice summer day.
Here’s how:
Gather tomatoes — I like different size and color cherry tomatoes paired with some fresh vine tomatoes. The different colors and their sweetness adds a lot to an otherwise very simple salad. But, grab whatever looks the freshest at your local store or farmstand because fresh = best.
Get your basil — homemade pesto is such a game changer! It’s fresher, tastier, and more appreciated than any store bought kind.
Make your pesto — use all the basil you got! I typically use at least three large handfuls of basil leaves. Throw them in a food processor along with three cloves of garlic, quality sea salt, and cubed up parmesan. You definitely want to use real parmesan — since this recipe has limited ingredients, you really want to use the best of what’s available to make it as tasty as possible. I use about 3/4 cup to 1 cup of parmesan. Get your processor going and drizzle in the olive oil. Continue to add oil until you’ve reached a consistency you like. Many people add pine nuts to their pesto and/or some lemon, but I’m not big on either in my pesto so I’ve excluded them from this recipe.
Halve and quarter your vine tomatoes. Place them around a contained serving dish with halved cherry tomatoes. The different sizes and colors make the dish more visually appealing. Sprinkle with some quality sea salt.
Use about half of your pesto and spoon over your tomatoes. Slice open your burrata and place over your tomatoes. Spoon more pesto over the burrata — you want color and flavor!
Lastly, drizzle your salad with some quality balsamic vinegar or glaze and top it off with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Serve with a fresh sliced baguette.
Ingredients: tomatoes, basil, parmesan, garlic, olive oil, burrata, balsamic glaze, salt and pepper, baguette.
