Precious Art By Precious People

Caprese Salad and Bruschetta with Caprese

These salads have practically the same ingredients so I have decided to include the recipes together as it will be impossible to get them mixed up. They can be served as a salad or an appetizer, the only difference being to add the toasted Tuscan bread to be served as the base to the Caprese. We’ll start with the Caprese salad which is simple to put together and will whet anyone’s taste buds.

You will need the following ingredients:

• 8 oz. buffalo mozzarella cheese, sliced fairly thin
• 2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced about ¼ inch thick
• a good bunch of fresh basil leaves
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and pepper
• balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Alternate the cheese and tomato slices by putting down the tomato slice first.
2. Top each slice of tomato with a slice of fresh mozzarella.
3. You can either shred the basil leaves and sprinkle them over each piece of mozzarella or you can use the whole basil leaf and place it the same way.
4. Continue to arrange the tomato, mozzarella and basil leaves in a circular wheel shape or line up each piece of tomato, mozzarella and basil on a platter to eat individually.
5. Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper.
6. Drizzle the olive oil and the Balsamic vinegar over each piece, being careful not to saturate.
7. Your guests may choose to add more vinegar or oil if desired.

Bruschetta con caprese
Add to ingredients above:

• 4-6 slices of Tuscan round loaf bread
• 2 garlic cloves

Following the same directions for the Caprese salad above,

1. toast the bread slices on both sides under the broiler until golden brown and rub each side with cut side of a clove of garlic. You may need more than one cut clove of garlic.
2. Drizzle with olive oil and cut the slices of toasted bread in half.
3. Place the Caprese salad on top of the toasted bread in the same order: tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil.
4. Season with salt and pepper.

Great as an appetizer and takes only minutes to prepare!

See you on Thursday with another beautiful greeting card.

Buon Appetito! Enjoy!
-Maria

Tested in the THASC kitchen. Photo byTHASC.
THASC is a unique small American business producing cards and other promotional products.
www.thasc.com