Caprese Salad

Caprese Salad

The Caprese Salad dates back to prior to World War I Italy where it appears on the menu of the Hotel Quisisana.  This simple, but elegant salad represents Italy’s flags colors (green, white and red) and incorporates many of the flavors of an exceptional Italian dish.  The key to making a great Caprese Salad is to use the best ingredients, vine ripe tomatoes, mozzarella ball, good olive oil, and fresh basil leaves.

There is no set recipe with all it’s measurements, list of ingredients and directions for this salad, but rather a simple road map to get you to this delicious salad.  For the cost breakdown, I used what I typically put into my salad, but it can be increased or decreased as you desire.

This simple salad is made by slicing the tomatoes and placing them on a plate.  

Next, put basil leaves on tomatoes.  

Then slice or cut mozzarella into pieces and place on top of basil.  

Finally drizzle the balsamic vinaigrette on top of mozzarella.  I use homemade balsamic vinaigrette for this salad, but you could use store bought.  

Cost Breakdown

Roma Tomato (about 3oz)= $.38

(Kroger $.99 per lb)

2 oz Mozzarella Cheese=  $.42

(Aldi $1.69 for 8 oz)  

About 8 basil leaves= $.90

(Kroger $1.79 per .66oz)

1 Tablespoon of Balsamic Dressing=  $.12

(Kroger $3.79 per 16 oz)

Homemade Total= $1.82

Restaurant Plate

Brio- You would need to order a Tomato Caprese at the cost of $27.00.  However, this menu item does serve 7. Therefore the cost per person is $3.86.  

Giammarco’s Restaurant-  The Caprese Salad is found under the salad section of their menu at a cost of $11.00.

Marcella’s Italian Kitchen- The Caprese Salad is found under their salad section of the menu at a cost of $8.99.  

Even if we look at the cheapest per plate price, the homemade price of this delicious salad is 47% of the plate price, but we would need to purchase 7 plates of this salad in order to obtain this price.  If we only want one, then the next price is $8.99 per plate which comes in at saving 79%. In addition, during the summer, I decrease my out of pocket I grown my own Tomatoes and Basil. In addition to helping with our financial budget, we will also get the benefit of the freshest tomatoes and basil for this dish.