Caprese Salad

The tub of fresh pesto from yesterday, and the fresh summer tomatoes sitting on my counter were both crying out to me this morning to make these Caprese salads. And I was all too happy to oblige them. Simple, but amazingly delicious, these salads hardly constitute cooking. I start by slicing a tomato and a ball of fresh mozzarella. I then layer them vertically (essentially putting the tomato back together again), adding a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to each tomato layer, and a spoon full of  my homemade pesto  and a couple of large basil leaves on the cheese layers. Once stacked, I plunge a bamboo skewer through the top of each stack to help prevent them from toppling over. The sweet, acidity of the tomatoes with the buttery, saltiness of the cheese, and the flavorful basil pesto bringing it all together: it is a little piece of summer on a plate. Happy Saturday!