If there is a salad that defines Italian cuisine, it is without a doubt the Caprese salad. The base of this salad is mozzarella and fresh tomato seasoned with fresh basil . From there, the variations are endless. I have had it as a normal salad, assembled as if it were a mille-feuille, on a board with the ingredients separated, and in a stuffed tomato.
But today we're going one step further and making a caprese pasta salad . You can use your favorite short pasta, and I prefer to use cherry tomatoes on the vine, but you can use whatever tomatoes you have on hand.
The result is a fresh, colourful and very appetising pasta salad on these hot days. And I'll tell you a secret. The next day my son thought the leftovers were hot pasta and heated the pasta salad in a frying pan. He loved the result, so if you're brave, try it and tell me about it!
Revol Revolution 2 porcelain cocotte , Revol Color Lab porcelain bowl , Revol round porcelain plate and Revol oil cruet
Ingredients
- 250gr of short pasta
- 200gr of fresh and very red cherry tomatoes
- Half a teaspoon of dried chili pepper flakes
- A pinch of dried oregano
- 100gr of black olives
- 200gr of fresh mozzarella in balls
- 1 bunch of fresh basil
- 60ml extra virgin olive oil
- 20ml of white sherry vinegar (you can use the one you like best, but the white one allows you to keep the colours as they are, and they are so pretty!)
- Salt and black pepper
Preparation
- In a bowl, place the mozzarella balls with salt and pepper and set aside.
- We start by cooking the pasta al dente in our Revol cocotte . It is important not to overcook it and leave it slightly whole, because this will add texture to our salad.
- For the marinade, using a Miyabi knife , cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Chop some basil leaves and put everything in a bowl along with the chilli flakes, oregano and extra virgin olive oil. Set aside.
- Using the same knife, cut the black olives into slices. Set aside.
- When the pasta is ready, rinsed and drained, put it back into the cold cocotte. This cocotte is so pretty that you can use it as a salad bowl right away.
- In the cocotte we will also put the olives chopped into slices, the mozzarella balls and the marinated tomatoes.
- Adjust the salt and add a teaspoon of white sherry vinegar. It is important that the vinegar is sweet (I prefer it to be white so that it does not spoil the colour of the pasta, although Modena vinegar is the most commonly used vinegar in Italy).
- Using the Revol oiler , add extra virgin olive oil, stir well and adjust the salt and black pepper.
- Serve on Revol plates (which you can also use in the oven and which I am totally in love with) and finish with some fresh basil leaves. Buon appetito!