Caprese Salad is a popular Italian salad made with mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, salt and olive oil. It sometimes contains arugula. The following recipe is my adaptation which has loose leaf lettuce rather than arugula. I happened to have loose lettuce on hand and used that. Also, the mozzarella is not cut into slices. It’s a whole ball of mozzarella centered in the middle of the salad. This is not my original idea. Credit goes to the cookbook writer Chrissy Teigen who does her caprese salad that way. Where she got the idea, I do not know. But credit is given where credit is due.  Again, with a crusty loaf of bread and some nice chilled white wine (or red, for that matter), you’ve got yourself a perfect summer salad, either as an appetizer or main course.

CRAPESE SALAD

Ingredients:

1 (16-ounce) link sausage, either Italian sausage, Andouille, keilbasa, bratwurst, etc., even plant based sausage
1 bunch salad greens
1 (8-ounce ball) mozzarella cheese
2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cut into slices
10-12 pitted Kalamata or black olives
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Cook sausage: If sausage has a casing, remove the casing. Cut sausage into small rounds and cook in a pan with a little oil until sausage loses its pink color, about 6-9 minutes. Note: if it’s pork sausage, it should reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees).  Set aside.
  2.  Scatter the salad greens on a serving platter. Cut a small opening in the mozzarella ball so you can see the center.  Place cheese in the in center of the greens. Arrange the tomatoes and olives around the cheese ball. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar.
  3.  Season the entire salad with salt and pepper. Top with the sausage and serve.
    Yield: 4-6 servings.