Capri-Style Tomato and Buffalo-Mozzarella Salad

La Caprese di Bufala

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top 1000Marcella Cucina
Marcella Cucina

By Marcella Hazan

Published 1997

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This salad, which bears the name of the island of Capri, is so simple that it requires no recipe: It consists of slices of tomato, mozzarella, and basil leaves arranged alternately on a plate and seasoned with salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil. That’s it. Anyone can make it. Anyone, that is, who has sweet basil, very ripe, firm, sugary, locally grown summer tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella made from the milk of the water buffalo.

That last word irritates purists from Capri, who object that there are no milk-producing buffalo on the island. A former mayor of Capri, and a Venetian acquaintance of mine, the Marchese Antonio Pisani Massa Mormile, a.k.a. Toto, insists that the mozzarella has to be the one known as fior di latte, from cow’s milk. That is what they use on Capri because they have nothing better, and besides, if you are having it in Capri, even rubber might taste heavenly. But in more earthbound locations, for me the choice is imperative: buffalo mozzarella or nothing.