Pasta Caprese Salad

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This authentic Pasta Caprese Salad is a quick, fresh, light and delicious lunch you can make in minutes and this is how it is made in Capri. Look for the gigantic mozzarella called Zizzona, an amazing dish to feed a crowd.

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Why Caprese
No Balsamic on Caprese
What mozzarella to use in Caprese
What Zizzona means
Which Tomatoes
More tips
How to serve it
Recipes you might also like
📋Pasta Caprese Salad
Tips for making the original Caprese

Why Caprese

The name already reveals the ingredients: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil all season with an Italian extra virgin olive oil.

Capri is an island off the coast of Naples, and this recipe was created after the war to reflect the colour of the Italian flag.

Red the tomato
White the mozzarella
Green the basil

So why some people add balsamic vinegar? I don’t know!

If you have the classic mozzarella and tomatoes from Naples, you don’t need to add anything else.

Oil pouring over a zizzona caprese salad

No Balsamic on Caprese

You can add balsamic vinegar at your peril, but if you do, don’t call it Caprese because Balsamic Vinegar is not an ingredient from Capri. In fact, balsamic vinegar is an ingredient originated from Modena in the North of Italy.

Italian cuisine is traditional very regional and uses only local ingredients. If you want to know more about the Italian cuisine historic background, you can read the article: Italian Ingredients

Tomatoes in the South of Italy already have a sweet flavor built naturally from the sun and the fertile volcanic soil. Adding a sweet dressing just doesn’t make sense for me … and many others.

Balsamic Vinegar and Peaches on Caprese

For the majority of the Italian population, mozzarella and balsamic vinegar do not belong together, and neither do peaches.

Like pineapple on pizza, same concept!

So please if you do add these ingredients, don’t call it Caprese. Caprese is the representation of our National Flag, and there is no purple in it!

What mozzarella to use in Caprese

If you go to an Italian Pizzicagnolo (cheesemonger) you will be amazed to find such a vast variety of Mozzarella.

There are 4 main types of fresh mozzarella:

Regular mozzarella also called Fior di Latte
Buffalo mozzarella made with Italian buffalo’s milk
Burrata which has a buttery creamy hearth
Smoked mozzarella

The classic Caprese is made with Fior di Latte, but you can also use the Buffalo mozzarella. There are also solid mozzarellas not stored in water, which are used for cooking, they cannot be used for Caprese.

Fresh mozzarella has also different shapes:

Regular
Bocconcini: small
Treccia: braid shape
Zizzona: gigantic shape

different types of mozzarella in at the cheese-monger

What Zizzona means

Yes, you see it right. It looks like a big breast and in Neapolitan dialect, Zizzona means big breast. Even if you may think it is a sexual reference, I see it more as a maternal allusion.

More than Sofia Loren, those mozzarella remind me about the big ladies you find at the markets with such a prominent breast that if they need to put their hands on their chest (typical Italian hand movement to indicate themselves), their hand will have to be horizontally over the breast as there is no vertical space left on the cleavage.

..but then again, men might have other ideas!

Which Tomatoes

You can either use Bull Heart tomato or Fiascone tomatoes originally from Capri. You can also use Cherry tomatoes or Pachino, but if you do that you need to use the bocconcini mozzarella. In fact, a simple rule is that the tomatoes should be of the same size as the mozzarella.

Whatever you choose, the tomatoes should be fresh, firm, crunchy and not watery. If you are in Italy, I would recommend you look for the Melinda or Zerbini tomatoes. They are as crunchy as an apple and sweet. Perfect for a nice Caprese.

More tips

Few more things about Caprese salad:

The mozzarella should be at room temperature
The water from the mozzarella should be drained completely
Use the best Extra virgin olive oil you can find
The size of the mozzarella slices should match the size of the tomatoes.

How to serve it

You can serve the Caprese in a salad bowl with fresh bread.

Caprese salad in a bowl with fresh bread on the side

or mixed with a short pasta (not spaghetti) and follow this recipe.

…and the gigantic Zizzona? Well, you will not find tomatoes of the same size, so you serve it in a large plate surrounded by tomatoes and basil.

What a feast!

Zizzona mozzarella on a large plate with tomato

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