Chopped Caprese Salad with Cherry Tomatoes & Pesto
This super simple chopped caprese salad comes together easily with cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and pesto. This is great way to use your juiciest and tastiest cherry tomatoes, and with the pesto infusing basil flavor through the salad, it's OK to make this without fresh basil!
Ingredients
- 10 oz cherry, grape and other baby tomatoes, quartered
- 4.5 oz fresh mozzarella , drained weight - this is the typical size of one ball of mozzarella from the supermarket
- 1-2 tbsp basil pesto, see notes
- 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, see notes
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop your tomatoes. To get them as uniformly sized as possible, I like to do the following:With round cherry tomatoes, I slice them into quarters from the top down.With more oblong shaped grape / baby plum tomatoes, I halve them lengthways and then cut them again widthways.
- Chop your mozzarella. If you have a large ball, cut it into thick slices and then into squares. You want the pieces just a little bigger than the tomato chunks, but not too big.
- Add the tomatoes and mozzarella into a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix through.
- Whisk together the pesto and olive oil, and drizzle it in. Mix through, give it a taste test and add additional pesto and olive oil or seasoning if desired.
- Serve. You can store any leftovers in the fridge for a few days.
Notes
Pesto and olive oil quantities: Start with 1 tablespoon of each and add more to taste. Typically I would use 1.5-2 tablespoons of pesto if I have a very chunky fresh pesto (like the one pictured) but only 1 tablespoon if it's a runnier and oilier jarred pesto.
Calories: 154kcal, Carbohydrates: 4g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 25mg, Sodium: 243mg, Potassium: 179mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 638IU, Vitamin C: 16mg, Calcium: 175mg, Iron: 1mg