Reminiscing Italy
One of my favorite dishes we during our Europe trip last year was the Caprese Salad that we had during a day trip in Positano. It may have been just a simple salad comprising of tomatoes, homemade mozarella, and a few leaves of basil drizzled with a light dressing but there was just something so icredibile delightful with hope fresh and crisp the flavors tasted.
We already made our own version of the salad before, but recently I was hit with the idea of why not adding another favorite ingredient of ours to this dish and that is carbs..err pasta!!
So with this Caprese Pasta Salad, I tried to strategize keeping in mind the three main ingredients namely, basil, mozarella, and tomato. But since this was gonna be a pasta, I needed a sauce to hold everything together and I didn't think a light lemon dressing would work. So I decided to take the basil aspect of the dish and use it in form of the pesto. And then to keep in line with fresh greens in the pasta salad, I opted to use baby spinach since they add a nice crunch but taste very clean and crisp.
INGREDIENTS:
2 Large Tomatoes
1 Pack Fresh Mozarella
3 Tbsp Pesto
A Couple of cloves of garlic, crushed
A couple of handfuls of Spinach
A drizzle of Olive Oil for sauteing
PROCEDURE:
One of my favorite dishes we during our Europe trip last year was the Caprese Salad that we had during a day trip in Positano. It may have been just a simple salad comprising of tomatoes, homemade mozarella, and a few leaves of basil drizzled with a light dressing but there was just something so icredibile delightful with hope fresh and crisp the flavors tasted.
We already made our own version of the salad before, but recently I was hit with the idea of why not adding another favorite ingredient of ours to this dish and that is carbs..err pasta!!
So with this Caprese Pasta Salad, I tried to strategize keeping in mind the three main ingredients namely, basil, mozarella, and tomato. But since this was gonna be a pasta, I needed a sauce to hold everything together and I didn't think a light lemon dressing would work. So I decided to take the basil aspect of the dish and use it in form of the pesto. And then to keep in line with fresh greens in the pasta salad, I opted to use baby spinach since they add a nice crunch but taste very clean and crisp.
INGREDIENTS:
2 Large Tomatoes
1 Pack Fresh Mozarella
3 Tbsp Pesto
A Couple of cloves of garlic, crushed
A couple of handfuls of Spinach
A drizzle of Olive Oil for sauteing
PROCEDURE:
First, chop the mozarella and tomato into bite sized pieces
Saute the garlic in olive oil
Add in the tomatoes
Followed by the Pesto
Once the tomatoes are tender, toss the mixture in a bowl with the pasta and spinach
Toss in the Mozzarella last so that they don't just all melt and stick together
Dinner is served!!
Another instant hit, this is definitely going to be another go-to for a quick dinner dish!
Miks