Caprese Salad Bites

In two weeks, we're throwing a vintage farm-themed first birthday party, and we've come up with a menu full of farm-fresh recipes including these caprese salad bites. 

Since our mothers told us never to serve untested recipes, we made these for our weekly Party Planning Committee dinner - and boy are they delish! We can see these little morsels being passed at a cocktail party, being served as an appetizer, or being scaled up to full side salad proportions for a dinner party.


We can think of tons of fun variations on this bite-sized salad:

• BLT bites (swap the mozza and basil for bacon and lettuce)
• Greek salad bites (top a cucumber coin with a tomato filled with feta and oregano)
  
• Couscous or quinoa salad bites (fill the tomato with couscous or quinoa mixed with finely chopped onion and sweet onion dressing)

Here's what you'll need for the caprese salad version:

• 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes (we used grape tomatoes)
• Approx. 100g mozzarella (about 1/4 of the ball pictured)
• 4 leaves fresh basil
• Balsamic vinegar reduction (if you can't find this at your grocery store, simply heat balsamic vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat until thick and gooey)

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Here's what to do:

1. Shave enough skin off of one side of each tomato so that it sits flat on a plate. Then, flip the tomato over and cut off enough that the seeds and inner flesh are exposed. 
2. Scoop out most of the innards and set aside for another recipe.
3. Tear off triangular pieces of basil and insert to one side of the hollowed tomatoes.

  4. Cut strips of mozzarella and arrange inside the tomatoes.    
  5. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar reduction, and voila! Scrumptious bite-sized salads!

Note: If you're making these in advance, refrigerate prior to drizzling with vinegar, and drizzle right before serving.

We hope you and your guests enjoy these! Let us know how they turn out and what variations you come up with!


Love,
Ashley, Jen and Alessandra