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Photo: EUGENE MIM/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Ina Garten just did us all a favor and returned to her fan-favorite Instagram series, “Ask Ina.” With its return, the Barefoot Contessa intends to answer her followers' “frequently asked questions” in cooking demonstrations.
“So a friend of mine said she makes a caprese salad and it’s a mess, so I said to her, ‘I know exactly what you need to do,'” Garten said inher new video.
Here’s everything we learned in the new Instagram reel, and these tips are ones that you’ll want to write down, too.
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“So the first thing is, you want to take tomatoes and mozzarella that are about the same diameter,” Garten started. “So when you lay them down, they look very neat; it’s not like a big tomato and a tiny little piece of mozzarella.”
Keeping it proportionate is key. If you only have small sizes to work with, make ascoopable saladthat will taste just as delicious. But for this classic version, Garten has more advice up her sleeve.
“The best way to cut a tomato is with a serrated knife,” Garten explained. “Also you want the thickness of each—the tomatoes and the mozzarella—to be about the same, so they look very orderly.”
We fully agree with Garten’sslicing adviceon using a serrated knife, as it keeps tomato juice from squeezing out everywhere. After slicing the mozzarella with a regular slicing knife, Garten moves on to plating.
“The other thing I like to do is when I have round food, I like to put it on a square plate,” Garten said. “I just think it looks better, I don’t know, that’s my thing.”
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After layering her tomato and mozzarella slices, she seasons her side salad.
“I always put the things that give it flavor on first,” Garten suggested. “So first, I’m going to put on salt, you don’t want the olive oil and the vinegar to wash away the flavor.”
Garten then cracks black pepper on top of the caprese salad.
“You want it to get into the tomato and the mozzarella,” she said. “And then the next thing I do is vinegar, I’m just going to do a drizzle on each. I’m using red-wine vinegar. You can do white, balsamic, whatever vinegar you like.”
After adding the vinegar, Garten drizzles her olive oil over the top. The last thing she adds to the salad is the basil.
“You can do it two different ways,” she explained. “You can either do just a whole leaf, just a whole leaf in each [layer] … or you can julienne it.”
“Add the basil just before serving so it doesn’t turn brown!” Garten wrote.
With these tips, you’ll be able to make a gorgeous caprese salad, Ina Garten’s way. For more similar easy dishes, check out thesecaprese recipes that only take three steps to make.
Up next:This Anti-Inflammatory Salad Is Perfect for the Summer-to-Fall Transition
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