Orzo Caprese Salad
My sister made this for the family when we were both in Waco a few years back and it has since become a staple in our house….It’s simple, fresh, filling, and fairly healthy too. When she made it, she served it with a great grilled chick breast that had been marninated in a lemon rosemary marinade. Sadly, Rell does not eat Rosemary or chicken cooked in Lemon, so I do not get to serve it alongside that…..but, this goes great with just about everything. I made it this afternoon for tonight…we’re having grilled garlic herb chicken sausage and I thought this would go great. It’s also a nice alternative to your typical pasta salad. I brought it to a BBQ a couple of weeks ago and it got rave reviews.
Approx 1 cup uncooked Orzo, cooked, drained and cooled
1 pint grape tomatoes cut in half
1 ball mozzarella cheese cut into cubes
3/4 c – 1 c pine nuts, toasted
Several leaves of fresh basil, chopped
One bottle of balsamic vinagrette.
Combine pasta, tomatoes, and cheese in a bowl. Add balsamic vinagrette. How much you add is really going to depend on how you like it. As the pasta sits, it will absorb more dressing so if you’re going to make this a few days in advance, you might want to add more. Mix well. Add basil and pine nuts.
Variations – I like to make my own balsamic vinagrette (using my hand held imersion blender my friend Kerry gave me for my wedding shower) Im not one for formal recipies, so basically I put about 1-2T of brown sugar (I use splenda brown sugar sometimes) in the bottom of a bowl or large mixing cup. Add a couple of squirts of spicy brown mustard. Add some garlic and salt and pepper, and if you happen to have it around, some diced shallot. Add about 1/2 tp 3/4 c balsamic vinager…while mixing drizzle in olive oil to your desired consistency….usually around 1 c. I like mine more balsamic-ey so I tend to go heavy on the balsamic vinegar. Remember to add your oil to the vinegar and not the other way around or else it is really hard to mix well!
Instead of Mozzarella, I often use feta and it is soooo good!! I’ve tried it with blue cheese before, because we really like blue cheese….not very sucessful…in fact, yuck. Also, we’re not big tomato people, so sometimes I leave those out. I’ve blanched asparagus and chopped it into inch long pieces instead of tomatoes, and that was yum. we have also tried blanched broccoli….not so yum.
The Strawberry Muddler
I say this recipe in Bon Appetite Magazine last weekend and fell in love with it!!! It sounded like such a great summer cocktail, so refreshing….
Prosecco
Simple Syrup
Strawberries
Lemon Slices
Ice
In the bottom of a glass, muddle a few strawberries with about 1T simple syrup (I bought premade syrup at trader joes, but really, you just have to boil some sugar and water together to make it) Top (cover) with a lemon slice. Fill glass with ice. Fill with Prosecco. Enjoy! (oh, and you will!!!)
The funny thing about both of the summer staple recipies is that both of them have near impossible for me to find ingredients…however, I am sure those of you that live in more metropolitian areas…which is ALL of you….won’t have a hard time finding them at all….Orzo and Prosecco. Now, I have tried the salad with other pasta than Orzo…and it’s just not the same…iit really needs to be Orzo. But the drink, I am sure would be just as refreshing and yummy with Champagne if you have a hard time finding Prosecco….I finally found it at the Liquor Store and they had one kind, and only like 2 bottles of it!!!! Also, I was thinking the Strawberry Muddler would pretty much be great with all kinds of berries….blue, black, raspberry…or some combination of berries!
Cheers!
You had me at prosecco!