Easy Caprese Salad Recipe with Balsamic Glaze

Hey everyone, it's Natasha of Natasha's Kitchen and today I am going to show you how to make the ultimate caprese salad. This is so impressive and beautiful for parties and it's ridiculously easy. Plus we're going to make a homemade balsamic glaze that just puts this over the top. Let's get started. If you've never made a balsamic glaze, it is so easy. Pour one cup of good balsamic vinegar into a saucepan and add half a tablespoon of honey. The honey is optional and the recipe will still work without it. Bring that to a low boil, then reduce the heat and keep it at a simmer for about 12 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally or until it's reduced by half and lightly coats the back of a spoon. Keep in mind it will thicken more as it cools. When it's done, it will have reduced down to about one-third cup of glaze. It's easy to make this salad as large or as small as you'd like. We're going to make a platter so you'll need three to four medium ripe tomatoes. Slice those into about quarter inch rings. Arrange those on your serving platter, overlapping slightly. Next, you'll need 12 to 16 ounces of fresh mozzarella cheese. Slice that the same thickness as the tomatoes. Sometimes you can find this cheese in the grocery store pre-sliced so it's even easier. Layer the cheese between each slice of tomato, making sure you can see all of the layers. You'll need a handful of fresh basil leaves and do not skip the basil. I tuck them in whole between the layers but you can also chop and add it to the salad. Alright, all of the salad ingredients are in and that was so easy and it looks gorgeous. Now all that's left to do is to dress this up and with the caprese salad, you just drizzle on the toppings. So we've got some salt and pepper and I like to generously season this. The salt really makes the tomatoes shine. Alright and then some extra virgin olive oil for rich flavor. Drizzle that on every layer, every row. So yummy. Okay and then last but not least, our balsamic glaze and it's cooled down to room temperature and you can see it's thickened. Gorgeous and it tastes even better. So let's drizzle this salad. Again, be generous. Oh yum. Oh my goodness and as soon as you have the dressing on, it is best to serve right away. So that's exactly what we're gonna do. We're gonna go right into this taste test. And it looks just as pretty on the plate as it does on the platter. Okay, cut right into this and a little bit of everything. Got every layer. Every layer is so good together. This is a perfect flavor combination. You've got the fresh sweet tomatoes and garden grown is the best and then the creamy fresh mozzarella is a nice touch and absolutely love the fresh basil. It adds sweet notes to this and pulls it all together. And the dressing, oh you guys are gonna love it. It is ridiculously easy and just so delicious. You're gonna want to eat it with your spoon. Oh this is an easy, excellent, crowd pleasing salad. Hey before you go, if you guys love fresh tomato recipes, check out some of our all-time favorites right over there and make sure you try the one right down there. It's really, really, really good. And then click below to subscribe and when you do, click that little bell icon so you'll get notifications every single time we post a new recipe. We'll see you in our next video.