Roasted Honey Tomato Caprese with apricot & strawberries

In summer we always go to Italy. And what is one of the best things you can have in Italy? Tomato and mozzarella or burrata. Also called caprese. But since it is all different this year, and travelling is not so easy and safe I decided to bring Italy home. But Italy with a twist, a really good twist.

So what’s Caprese?

Caprese is a dish that, as the name already tells, comes from Capri, which is an island in Italy. It is located rather in the south and therefore grows a lot of tomatoes. Also, it is not far from Puglia, which is famous for it’s mozzarella cheese. So Capri combined those two ingredients and made a legendary dish out of it. Usually it is served with some fresh basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

What’s special about this dish?

Although I have never been to Italy Caprese is one of my favourite foods. I love both, tomatoes and (buffalo) mozzarella. I am honest, since I was a child I have always eaten tomatoes whenever I could. It would be so annoying for my mom because she would buy maybe half a kilogram or even a kilogram of cherry tomatoes because she wanted to cook something with it and the next day they were gone. No joke, I was snacking on them non stop. I am still obsessed with them and love them. Pretty much the same goes for mozzarella and burrata though.

Anyway, back to the point, what is special about this dish? As you may know me if you have been following me for a while I always add a twist to classics because it makes them unique and gives you a more exciting taste experience. So here, instead of the basic tomato mozzarella combo we roast the tomatoes, so they enhance their flavour (which is game changing) and add some fruits. I know what you are thinking. Fruits in savoury dishes? Well, first, tomatoes are fruits as well (most people don’t know that!) and secondly, it is really good if you only try it! The combination is the key! Maybe you know a combo like watermelon and feta or melon and prosciutto. Same thing, sweet and savoury combined.

Besides this, we are not doing basic olive oil and balsamic vinegar only. Although this already is pretty good, we can make it better. By adding some pesto as a „dressing“. If you wanna go extra fancy, go ahead and make the pesto yourself, but you can also use store bought. And lastly, I would recommend using burrata instead of mozzarella. Burrata is creamier than mozzarella and a bit more expensive. But to be honest it is 100% worth it once in a while. Give it a try.

Is this dish healthy?

It is balanced. So I would say yes. Tomatoes and fruits are healthy, definitely. Pesto and Burrata are not unhealthy but they are not the healthiest food you could consume. They are high in protein but also contain a bunch of saturated (and pesto also unsaturated) fats and are rather high in calories. I know that they are super good, so it is perfect to have them once in a while but maybe not every day. But all in all I would say that this dish is healthy.

Substitutes:

Burrata: mozarella, buffalo mozarella
Tomatoes: I would not substitute those
Strawberries: raspberries, cherries, wild strawberries
Apricots: peaches, nectarines, honey melon
Pesto: would not substitute that, if you do not have it, leave it out

I love love love this dish as a quick summer lunch because it is ready in 20 minutes, it’s easy, fresh and still light. Basic but made fancy and pretty much everyone loves it. Definitely worth the try so you can bring Italy home, straight to your living room.

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière