Caprese Breakdown

We still had some tomatoes and mozzarella left (the basil decided to peace out, the little twerp!) after those caprese bowls/balls/bakes and I love that caprese salad so I thought to myself, "Now that you have some balsamic vinegar, you could make a REAL variation on caprese!"

Yeah, anyone notice something wrong with this picture?

Correctamundo, dear reader, the Red Wine Vinegar and the Balsamic Vinegar have a nearly identical label and I did not manage to notice this until AFTER I'd started dashing a decidedly NOT dark substance on my deconstructed caprese!

Before that, I chopped up the tomato...

And pulled out some mozarella balls to be quartered...

Then tossed it all together with the salt, olive oil, and red wine vinegar...

Gotta love the glow of olive oil on mozarella! And the red wine vinegar actually wasn't a bad addition-- you have to super like sour stuff, though, because it was on the tart side. Thankfully, I adore sour/acid so it was right up my alley. I ate the tomatoes first and let the cheese soak up some of the liquid... superb!

Rating: Easy Peasy
Cost: Cheap-- it's leftovers!
Conclusion: Delish! Definitely a great "re-hashed" leftovers sort of deal

Baked Caprese, Caprese Bowls, Caprese Balls...

OK, so I'm not starting this off right since this one didn't originate from a specific Pin, but there were so many awesome Caprese salad variations I just went for this one on a whim! I was still INSPIRED by Pinterest, so it counts, right? OK, fine, I'll get around it by pinning it myself!

All you need is a few fresh tomatoes with the top half scooped out, some mozarella (I used mozarella balls from the farmer's market) and some basil! I topped it off with a little kosher salt and some olive oil, then popped them in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes. Next time, however, I will poke some holes in the bottom of the tomatoes because the juice almost got in the way of enjoyment. I didn't have any balsamic vinaigrette, but I picked some up the other day and will be adding it to round 2: deconstructed caprese! 

Rating: Easy Peasy
Cost: Cheap
Conclusion: Delicious-- if you like caprese salad, you have to give this a try! People will think you're super fancy!