You slice ripe tomatoes and mozzarella to the same thickness, lay them down with basil, and pour oil in a slow ribbon. Salt makes the fruit weep. It is not a salad so much as a test of the season — if the tomatoes are pale or the cheese is dry, you have no dish.
The name is Capri's. You want mozzarella di bufala from the Campania plains, still leaking whey onto the plate. Balsamic glaze is a tourist interpolation; the island does not use it.
Serve at once. Mozzarella left to sit turns rubber. Pepper if you like; the oil and salt are the dressing.
Method
- 01
Slice the tomatoes and the mozzarella to about the same thickness — a generous quarter-inch is right, so each slice has presence without being clumsy. Use a sharp knife and a gentle sawing motion on the cheese so it doesn't squash. If whey runs onto the board, that's a good sign; buffalo mozzarella should leak a little. Keep everything cool until the moment you plate.
- 02
On a platter — nothing fancy, a white plate shows the colors best — alternate a slice of tomato, a slice of mozzarella, a basil leaf, and so on, overlapping them just a little so they look like a wreath. Tear the basil rather than cutting it; a knife bruises the leaves and they darken. Leave a little space at the rim so the oil has somewhere to go.
- 03
Now season, and be more generous than you think. A pinch of flaky salt over the tomatoes — salt on the fruit, not just the cheese — and a grind of black pepper over the lot. Taste a scrap of tomato; if it doesn't sing, it needs more salt. This is a dish of three ingredients, so each one has to be awake.
- 04
Pour the oil over in a slow ribbon so it catches on the basil and pools in the hollows of the tomato. You should see it gleam; if the plate looks dry, add a little more. Get it to the table at once — mozzarella left to sit turns rubbery, and nobody wants that. A knife and fork, and that's the whole dinner if the fruit is good.
