So Italian Caprese Salad

Caprese salad is so Italian that it has the three colors of the Italian flag. It’s made out of tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves. It’s seasoned with olive oil and pepper and served as antipasto or first course.
It’s called Caprese, after the Island of Capri in the Tyrrhenian Sea, in Southern Italy. It’s simple and easy to prepare. It’s as delicious as its ingredients put together can be. Geographical considerations apart, I must confess the reason for this post is not exactly the Insalata Caprese itself, but the amazing tomato, from my kitchen garden, that I chose to make it.I picked it this morning and wanted to share the size, perfect beauty, roundness and fleshy texture of this sweet and low acid Brandywine tomato, which tastes like those huge Margariteño tomatoes grown in Margarita Island, in Venezuela.
When I tasted it, it brought memories of my childhood and my Grandma Ligia, who managed to have these tomates margariteños regularly in her kitchen ‘imported’ from El Valle del Espíritu Santo, her home town in Margarita.Today I was so lucky. I had some fabulous mozzarella di bufala from Campana, the same region in Italy to which Capri belongs. This incredibly fresh cheese boasts the Denominazione d’Origine Protetta ‘Mozzarella di Bufala Campana’, a seal that certifies its origin and quality.