My sister just gave me a recipe for tomato salad. Sliced tomatoes, chopped fresh mozzarella, basil

[applegrove]

leaves, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Serve it freshly made (the basil leaves loose their flavor because of the dressing if you leave it for too long, they pop if you serve it really fresh).

What is your favorite summer salad?

[newcriminal]

1. very similar

I use grape tomatoes, chopped fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

[applegrove]

4. Basil. You are correct. I don't know why I said 'bay'. Corrected.

[newcriminal]

8. Sometimes, I put it in puff pastry shells

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. Sounds like a simple version of "Inslata Caprese"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insalata_Caprese

[applegrove]

5. Basil leaves not bay. My mistake.

[struggle4progress]

3. Sliced tomato and cucumber with a sprinkle of salt and a splash of lemon juice

is good

I'm also partial to guacamole

[applegrove]

6. I should have said basil leaves not bay. Sorry for the mistake.

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. That IS my favorite -- I probably have it once a week or more,

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I can't recommend highly enough substituting fresh snipped basil for the bay leaf. And switching out
the balsamic vinaigrette for a drizzle each of olive oil and plain balsamic vinegar.
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Here's two cool ways to serve it... in the first, get small fresh mozzarella balls and put them on
toothpicks with cherry tomatoes and a basil leaf (I would put a coupla drops of olive oil and balsamic
vinegar in the bottoms of the glasses) and cut large fresh mozzarella "logs" lengthwise into thin
"sheets" spread with chopped fresh basil and jellyroll them -- cutting them "tortilla pinwheel"
style.
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[applegrove]

9. Yeah basil. I made a mistake when I said bay. Looks good. I think I'll try it next

week again.

[Kali]

10. Lunch today

Tomatos amd basil fron the garden with mozzerela on homemade sourdough bread. Man it was good!

[applegrove]

11. Sounds great. Yes I suppose I could make the whole salad into sandwiches really easily.

That sounds yummy.

[MilesColtrane]

12. If only I could find worthy tomatoes.

The drought has depleted the quantity and quality of the produce at my local veggie stand.

And, grocery store tomatoes are out of the question. There's no way I'm going to buy those abominations.

[HopeHoops]

13. Um - you need extra-virgin olive oil in that salad.

[Arugula Latte]

14. That is not only my favorite salad, but caprese is probably my favorite food.

Sometimes I just go with a bit of salt and olive oil instead of balsamic. Either way -- deeelish. :9

[Demoiselle]

15. I love your recipe, Applegrove. But I use just olive oil and salt.

The tomatoes give it enough "bite" for me.

[driver8]

16. One of my family's favorites!! Fresh tomatoes are the BEST!!! n/t

[IcyPeas]

17. that is delicious as a sandwich too - on a nice roll of some sort.

there is a cafe where I work that sells that - it's one of the best sandwiches ever.