A Generic Italian

Name: A Generic Italian
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 50 g/1¾ oz rocket (arugula); 50 g/1¾ oz rocket (arugula); 1 fat beef tomato, thinly sliced; 1 white (sweet) onion, thinly sliced; big handful of fresh basil, roughly shredded; 125 g/4½ oz buffalo mozzarella, sliced into small wedges; 50 g/1¾ oz. generous ⅓ cup pine kernels, toasted (optional); sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 125 g/4½oz/¾ cup black olives; 125 g/4½ oz pancetta (optional), fried until crisp; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Mozzarella, Basil and Tomato Salad

Preparation info

A Slinky Starter for
2

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Salmagundi

By Sally Butcher

Published 2014

About

You can’t go wrong with this combo: the ingredients get on with each other, so well that it is impossible to make a bad ‘Italian’ salad. Don’t tell Mr Shopkeeper though: he thinks this is one of my cleverest dishes. Bless. If you want to impress, you can give it its proper ethnic name: insalata caprese.

Ingredients

50 g/1¾ oz rocket (arugula)
big handful of fresh basil, roughly shredded

Europe
Italy
Starter
Gluten-free

Method

Scatter the leaves on a platter and top with the mozzarella, tomato, onion and olives together with the pancetta and pine nuts, if using. Season and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with a separate bowl of balsamic vinegar and plenty of bread for dunking and mopping.

‘Molto delizioso!’, as Lucia* might have said.