Insalata Caprese (tomato, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil) is a popular antipasto (first course) in Italian cuisine. Since I eat a lot of Italian food, I often make it and season with salt and pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I love this dish so much that I wanted to tweak it for Japanese food. Most Japanese food doesn’t call for cheese unless it’s a Wafu (Japanese-style) foreign food but since fresh mozzarella cheese is so light, I thought it would be relatively easy to incorporate this into a Japanese meal. Now…the only thing was to Japanese-ify it so I replaced the basil with none other than shiso.
Ingredients (Servings 2)
4 shiso leaves
1 vine ripe tomato
1 fresh Mozzarella cheese ball sliced
1/2 tsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. olive oil
Directions
1) Slice an odd number of tomatoes and an even number of slices of mozzarella cheese. There should also be an even number of shiso leaves. (Cut the tomato so that you can see the seeds. It’s looks prettier that way.)
2) Arrange them so that you have tomato, shiso, cheese and then repeat and end with tomato.
3) Mix the dressing ingredients except olive oil and once the sugar is dissolved, add the olive oil and mix.
4) Pour half of the dressing over the salad just before serving.
Arrage tomato, shiso, cheese and repeat.
Drizzle a small spoonful of dressing on top.
Naomi Kuwabara was born and raised in California but spent many summers in Japan growing up. She has spent time living in Hokkaido and Osaka, both meccas for Japanese cuisine. Her passion is cooking and sharing her experiences cooking Japanese food with others. Her blog Umamitopia is about her experiences cooking Japanese food. Her greatest inspirations are from her mother and grandmother. Her cooking adventures can be found at http://umamitopia.com.
