Valerie Harrison with a super simple, but utterly delicious salad recipe.
By Valerie Harrison
Bocconcini, literally “little mouthfuls” in Italian, are bite-size balls of fresh mozzarella. Pair them with sun-ripened cherry tomatoes and your favourite pesto and you have one of the simplest and most delicious salads ever.
Pesto Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- Salad:
- 8 ounces (200 grams) mini bocconcini (baby mozzarella balls)
- 2 cartons (28 oz/792 grams) cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup (118 mL) basil pesto (recipe below or use your favourite)
- 1/2 cup(118 mL) Greek yogurt, drained
- Pesto:
- 1/4 cups (59 mL) walnuts
- 1/4 cup(59 mL) pignoli (pine nuts)
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) chopped garlic (3 cloves)
- 5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1–1/2 cup (375 mL)good olive oil
- 1/2 cup (118 mL) freshly grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Drain the bocconcini. Pat dry. If you were unable to find the small bocconcini, cut them in half to match the size of the tomatoes. Rinse and pat dry the cherry tomatoes. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients with 1/2 cup Greek yogurt.. Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside for at least one hour to allow flavours to marry.
- Pesto
- Place the walnuts, pignoli, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.
- Serves 4
- Prep Time: 10 mins
Yum, Yum, Yum – we thoroughly enjoyed this caprese salad made with tomatoes and basil from our garden.
Awesome recipe. I love your combo of pesto w. the basic caprese salad. I will certainly try this. I have a different, original pesto recipe that you might like too. http://bit.ly/nKkCow.