Serious Eats: Recipes
Dinner Tonight: Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Microgreens
There's a reason tomato and mozzarella go well together—the sweet fruit sings on top of smooth, tangy mozzarella. The combination is most familiar on a pizza, but I love them together in a raw tomato sauce or simply sliced and drizzled with olive oil for a classic Caprese salad.
My goal with this recipe was to bulk out the Caprese salad into a whole meal. Mesclun field greens didn't seem right, nor did head lettuce like romaine or red leaf. The answer came in the "buy one, get one free" boxes of microgreens from the Greenmarket (an end-of-day deal), which would give the delicate crunch I was after. The recipes above share a third summer bounty—basil—so I slivered that in with the greens. A drizzle of balsamic made sure there was plenty of flavor to go around.
About the author: Blake Royer lives in Brooklyn and spends most of his free time cooking and writing about it here at Serious Eats and on The Paupered Chef. From 9 to 5 weekdays, he works as an assistant book editor in Manhattan.
Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Microgreens
- serves 2 -
Ingredients
2 large tomatoes, preferably heirloom, sliced
4 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced into discs
2 large handfuls microgreens or other salad mix
1 small handful basil leaves, sliced thinly
Good olive oil, to taste
Balsamic vinegar, to taste
Sea salt (preferably flaky)
Freshly ground black pepper
Procedure
1. Toss the greens with the basil, then arrange on two plates.
2. Top with the tomatoes and mozzarella. Drizzle in olive oil and vinegar to taste—less is more.
3. Season with salt, especially on the mozzarella, and top with black pepper.