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Italian/French Tomato Salad
Ingredients for
4 salads:
- 6 medium tomatoes
- 1
Mozzarella cheese. One cheese is about 4 ounces (125g),
but the exact amount isn't important.
- Handful fresh basil
leaves
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Optional
- 1 baget (a French loaf
of bread)
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Preparation Time: 15 Minutes |
Cooking Time:
None |
Recipe:
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Cut
the tomatoes into slices (about half a centimeter thick). Remove the cores from
the slices.
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Arrange the slices on a serving plate. The slices should be
separate (in other words, not lying on top of each other.
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Cut
the cheese into slices the same thickness as the tomato slices.
Put a cheese slice on top of each tomato slice. The cheese
slices should be about half as big around as the tomato slices,
so that when you lay the cheese on top of the tomato the tomato
is about half-covered.
-
Place
a basil leaf on top of each slice cheese. This gives you a
tomato/cheese/basil leaf layer.
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Drizzle olive oil over the top.
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Add
salt and pepper to taste
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Place
the plate on the table with a fork and spoon so that guests can
help themselves.
As an
optional extra, a nice addition is a baget (French break stick)
cut into slices. Place the slices on a plate or in a bread
basket and put on the table with the salad. The bread can be
eaten with the salad and used to mop up the dressing afterwards.
Notes:
This is a very simple dish, but
quite enjoyable, especially on a summer day. It's very
simplicity means that the quality of the raw ingredients comes
out (for good or bad), so particular attention should be given
to getting fresh, ripe tomatoes and a high quality olive oil.
The basil needs to be fresh.
This recipe is found frequently
in both Italy and the French Mediterranean.
Mozzarella is
traditionally made in Southern Italy from the milk of water
buffalos (introduced into Italy from India in the 16th century),
but elsewhere in the world it is made from cow's milk. If you
can get hold of authentic buffalo milk Mozzarella from Italy, it
will add extra taste. A number of speciality importers
(including some on-line) offer this. If not, just use the
Mozzarella available from your local store.
For similar recipes, click on
Tomato Salad Recipes.
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