Perfect Caprese Salad Recipe

This delicious Caprese Salad recipe uses fresh-ripened tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh herbs, and extra virgin olive oil. You will love how light and refreshing this salad is.

Summertime is full-on tomato season, so I’m always trying to take advantage of these peak-season months to make things like summer Strawberry Spinach Salad or salsa for my Baja fish tacos.

Caprese Salad

Caprese salad is a cold or room-temperature salad of fresh tomatoes with herbs, cheese, salt, pepper, and olive oil. It’s meant to be a light, tasty dish where all the ripe tomatoes are dominant in flavor. This is a salad that can have variations with different types of tomatoes, herbs, and oils.

This salad has its roots in Italy and was birthed during the 1920s. A chef at Hotel Quisisana post-WWI wanted to pay tribute to everything that was Italy, including its country’s colors, and invented the Caprese salad.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Tomatoes — There are no bad tomatoes to use for this. The biggest thing is to make sure they are ripe and firm. You can use heirloom, cherry, grape, vine-ripe, beefsteak, Roma, cocktail, San Marzano, etc.
• Cheese — It’s classic to use a sliced mozzarella ball made from buffalo’s milk. However, you can also use whole cow’s milk mozzarella in different sizes, scamorza, burrata, chunks of provolone, or fontina.
• Herbs – I used dried oregano and fresh basil leaves. You can also use dried basil if that’s all you have. I do not advise using fresh oregano as it can be too pungent.
• Oil – Any good extra virgin olive oil will work.
• Seasonings – I only used coarse salt and freshly cracked pepper.

How to Make a Caprese Salad

Slice up your tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella into bite-size pieces.

Mix together the tomatoes and mozzarella on a serving plate, bowl or tray.

Sprinkle on dry oregano, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper.

Generously drizzle on some good extra virgin olive oil.

Finish the Caprese salad by adding some fresh basil leaves. You can also optionally drizzle on some balsamic reduction.

Make-Ahead and Storage

Make-Ahead: This salad is meant to be eaten right away. However, if you keep all of the ingredients prepared and separate, you can make it up to one day ahead of time.

How to Store: Cover in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This will not freeze well.

chef notes + tips

• When selecting olive oil, I like to purchase imported from Italy, bottled at the source, expeller or cold pressed, organic, on salt, and always extra virgin for full flavor.
• This salad is malleable, so if you want more tomatoes, cheese, herbs, olive oil, salt, and pepper, please customize it to your liking.

More Salad Recipes

• Caesar
• Shaved Brussels Sprouts
• Watermelon Feta
• Panzanella
• Strawberry Spinach

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Perfect Caprese Salad Recipe

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5 from 10 votes

This delicious Caprese Salad recipe uses fresh-ripened tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, fresh herbs, and extra virgin olive oil.

Servings: 6

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

• 3 pounds assorted tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1- pound buffalo mozzarella, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 teaspoons dry oregano
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 15 fresh basil leaves
• Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Instructions

• toss together the tomatoes and mozzarella in a serving bowl or on a serving plate or tray until mixed.
• Garnish with dry oregano, salt, and pepper.
• Finish by generously drizzling on olive oil and adding fresh basil leaves.

Notes

Make-Ahead: This salad is meant to be eaten right away. However, if you keep all of the ingredients prepared and separate, you can make it up to one day ahead of time.

How to Store: Cover in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This will not freeze well.

When selecting olive oil, I like to purchase imported from Italy, bottled at the source, expeller or cold pressed, organic, on salt, and always extra virgin for full flavor.

This salad is malleable, so if you want more tomatoes, cheese, herbs, olive oil, salt, and pepper, please customize it to your liking.

Nutrition

Calories: 312kcalCarbohydrates: 11gProtein: 16gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 321mgPotassium: 596mgFiber: 3gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 4183IUVitamin C: 31mgCalcium: 1721mgIron: 1mg

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Italian

Author: Chef Billy Parisi