Last weekend my niece, Kelsey Nunziatta, made us this appetizer called Caprese. If you want to impress your guests, serve this. It looks like a piece of artwork! The green, white and red represent the Italian flag.
Speaking of Caprese, I had the wildest experience in Trader Joe's the other day. A young woman with a very cool accent came up to me and asked if I knew where the tomatoes were for a Caprese She pronounced it "Caprayzay." Her name was Paulina and she was Columbian. I told her that surprisingly enough I was going to blog about that very thing that week.
Anyway, all you do is put sliced tomatoes on a serving platter. (To make it look even more like a work of art use heirloom [multi-colored] tomatoes.) You then sprinkle the tomatoes with garlic salt. Next you layer sliced fresh mozzarella on top of the tomatoes. Then you put fresh basil leaves on top. Finally you drizzle extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt and cracked pepper.
Opt. Drizzle balsamic vinegar reduction or regular balsamic on top. (Rachel Ray makes a great balsamic reduction that's at regular grocery stores.)
TRY IT YOU'LL LOVE IT!
Cooking Tidbit: Fresh mozzarella and buffalo mozzarella are not the same. Buffalo Mozzarella is actually made from buffalo milk and is a lot gooey-er.