Caprese Salad with Chopped Pesto

I love Caprese Salad so much.  Maybe it's because I don't eat it all that often so when I do have it it's even better.  But no matter what the reason, it's just really delicious.

My mom gave me a big block of fresh mozzarella a couple days ago and I immediately started having thoughts of combining it with tomato, and plotting if I would rather use basil or pesto, and if I wanted to put it on bread or not.  I should probably have been doing other things like visiting with my family and being social, but that's ok.  It's totally normal to daydream about combinations of food involving mozzarella cheese....right?

I had a bit of free time today so I decided that today was the day to make the Caprese Salad.  I ended up making a simplified hand-chopped pesto, which was inspired by the handmade pesto recipe on Crepes of Wrath.  Instead of full-out pesto, though, I just combined garlic and basil with a bit of olive oil.  Some days I prefer simpler flavors than more complex ones.  Be warned, however, that this pesto is not for the weak.  I use raw garlic, and lots of it.  If you tend to learn more towards being a vampire, reduce the amount of garlic used. 

Pesto Ingredients:

• About 1 cup fresh basil
• 3 large garlic cloves
• A bit of olive oil oil for drizzling
• Salt

Directions:
Using a large knife, peel and roughly chop up the garlic.  Push it to the side of the cutting board.
Wash and dry the basil, and then roughly chop it.
Combine the basil and garlic, and chop chop chop until it's nicely blended together.  I spent a good few minutes just chopping.
Sprinkle a bit of salt on the mixture and drizzle some olive oil on top.  Mix everything together and add more oil until the desired spreadable consistency is reached.

I liked this instead of the typical food-processor-made pesto because you can really taste each individual flavor, as opposed to mushing everything together so much that it creates a new flavor.

                             Ta da!! Pesto!

After making the pesto, I put together my Caprese Salad Sandwiches.
Ingredients:

• French bread
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• Tomato
• Pesto

Make slices of everything (except the pesto, of course).  Spread some pesto on each slice of bread, then top with mozzarella and tomato.  Put a  little bit of the pesto on top if you want to make it look pretty.

 

Yum!!  You should probably make this soon.  It'll be even better when summer is here and farm markets start selling fresh tomatoes and basil. I can't wait.