' INSALATA CAPRESE .' antipasto.

Capri style salad of Heirloom Cherry tomatoes , Fresh Buffalo milk mozzarella , Smoked Crostoni Bagnati , Smoked Cypress sea salt , cracked black pepper and micro sweet basil leaves.

                    Theres this little Italian grocers in a neighbouring suburb to my work that I'll sometimes visit. They have great fresh produce, seasonal and top quality along with that a deli with the lot and a section for imported goods mainly Italian for example I get my sherry vinegar from there but they also stock shiraz vinegar, pear cider vinegar, champagne vinegar etc. So to cut a long story short I went there last week to purchase the ingredients for this caprese salad. Insalata Caprese meaning 'salad in the style of capri', which is a part of tuscany, Italy. The caprese salad is sliced tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, basil leaves and served mainly as an 'antipasto' (starter) and not as a 'contomo' (side).        
                 The heirloom cherry tomatoes varieties used in this dish were ( Sungold, Orange roma, Cherry roma, Black cherry and Gardeners delight). To prepare this I simply halved the tomatoes before dressing them in olive oil and seasoned with a little smoked cypress sea salt and cracked black pepper. The mozzarella is made from fresh buffalo milk, the cheese has been imported from Italy frozen in a brine. There was no preparation with the cheese other than slicing to serve. The crostoni bagnati came seasoned with Italian herbs and to give it another flavour layer I tea smoked the bread with a smoke boat made of foil containing green tea, jasmine rice, brown sugar, peppercorns and the zest of an orange for about 5-10 minutes.            
                  To plate I placed some buffalo mozzarella in the centre of the plate, placing the tomatoes and its juices along one side of the cheese and the smoked crostoni on the opposite side garnishing the dish with micro sweet basil leaves.