For a quick and easy salad that’s guaranteed to please everyone, how about trying this dish from the La Mamma Italian Restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel Abu Dhabi?
This salad is a perfect starter to a delicious Italian meal and one that captures the freshness of the season.
Italian Chef Andrea Molinari said: “There is nothing more authentic and typical to the Italian cuisine than the caprese salad. The almost fruity taste of the ripe Italian tomatoes, combined with the finest buffalo mozzarella, gives you the full taste of Italy at its best.”
Ingredients:
- 125g buffalo mozzarella
- 150g ripe tomatoes
- 20ml extra virgin olive oil
- 3g salt
- 2g black pepper
- 10g parmesan cheese
- 5g fresh basil
Method:
- Slice the tomato and arrange on the plate
- Cut the mozzarella in wedges and place on the top of the tomato
- Chop basil leaves into thin slices
- Sprinkle tomatoes with salt, pepper and the finely sliced basil
- With a mandolin, finely slice the parmesan cheese and put on the top of the mozzarella
- Dress the salad with extra virgin olive oil
Check out our very own Tried and Tested review of this recipe below.
We were keen to check out the Caprese Salad recipe given to us by Chef Andrea Molinari of the La Mamma Italian Restaurant at the Sheraton Hotel Abu Dhabi.
This salad was a snap to make. It literally takes five minutes (and that's with a knife in dire need of sharpening!) to chop up some tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and arrange it on a plate.
The only trouble we ran into was trying to locate buffalo mozzarella at the supermarket however had we perhaps gone to a larger outlet, we may have found it more easily. We ended up using mozzarella that wasn't as fresh or creamy but still was delicious.
We do think it may be nice to substitute ripe tomatoes slices with smaller cherry tomatoes. Not only for presentation, but because cutting up the slices into bite sized pieces did leave a bit of a soggy mess on our plates.
This would be a great starter to begin any Italian feast you've been planning on having. As long as you can secure fresh and ripe ingredients, you've got yourself a winner.
We give it four out of five spoons!
