This makes a great summer side salad as well as a great side to bring to pot-lucks & picnics. The key is using small vine ripened tomatoes really really fresh buffalo mozzarella.
Ingredients
- Small vine ripened tomatoes, quartered – quantity depends on how many people you are making this for. When I’m making it for just the family (4), I use 8-10 tomatoes.
- Fresh buffalo mozzarella, cut bit sized – ratio of tomato to mozzarella is not quite 50/50. I like more tomato than mozzarella.
- Fresh basil, chopped – You really can’t use too much. I pull the leaves off and put in a measuring cup, stopping when I get about a cup. I then use cooking scissors to “chop” the basil in the measure cup. This keeps all the basil juices in the cup with the basil.
- Fresh garlic, minced – I use two cloves, ~1 TBL
- olive oil
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
- balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Mince garlic and add it to the serving bowl
- Add olive oil to the garlic in the serving bowl, adding just enough to cover the garlic to let it seep in the olive oil
- Chop basil and add to serving bowl. Add a tad more olive oil and stir
- Quarter the tomatoes and add to serving bowl. You may need/want to add more olive oil, then stir
- Season with a dash of salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste), and then stir
- Let sit for a bit to let the juices from tomatoes mix in with the olive oil, garlic & basil.
- At this point you could put in the fridge to keep before serving if it’s going to be hours before you eat. If you do though, make sure you take it out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you eat so that it can warm back up to room temperature.
- Before serving, add the balsamic vinegar and stir one last time; I drizzle about 2-3 TBL