Caprese Pasta Salad
This salad is addictive - double the recipe. I promise you will be glad you did.
Simple fresh ingredients are key to making this delicious summertime specialty, whose origins lie on the isle of Capri, just off Italy’s West coast near Naples. Italians somehow always seem to get it right when it comes to simple, high-quality, fresh ingredients. Vinegar, basil, tomatoes, and cheese are all we have to work with - so quality is of utmost importance. Use full-fat, fresh mozzarella; fresh local tomatoes and basil, and good Balsamic.
Caprese Pasta Salad
I love orzo for this dish because of its scale in relationship to the tomatoes and mozzarella. Anytime you are constructing a salad with lots of things mixed together - similar shape and size is an important goal for your components to keep them evenly disbursed throughout the dish. This wouldn’t work with spaghetti or any long pasta. Shells might also be a tough sell as they will tend to stick together. Orzo, tubetti, or even medium macaroni would work well - as long as they are roughly the same length as the chunks of tomato and cheese. This is the same reason the basil is finely chopped and not left as whole leaves.
I may or may not have bought too much basil (definitely not). There is no such thing.
