Caprese Two Ways

If you're entertaining this weekend, or this summer, here are two ways to serve everyone's favorite Caprese Salad. The first platter is great for outdoor parties. Just cover it with plastic, keep it in the shade with tongs and people can create their own Caprese stack. It's simply sliced tomato, a basil leaf, and sliced mozzarella layered in rows on a platter. The good thing is that you can get the mozzarella pre-sliced, making this really easy to arrange. But mozzarella does tend to be a bit bland, so I season each stack with salt and pepper as I go. Then, right before serving, I drizzle the platter with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum.

The second platter pictured contains Caprese Skewers. This is great for cocktail parties year round. It's simply golden cherry tomato, a small piece of basil, a mozzarella ball (aka ciliegine), another small piece of basil and a red cherry tomato all threaded on a skewer.  I've made these skewers for catering gigs a few times in the past and I had a hard time finding the ciliegine mozzarella. Well, this time around, I go into BJ's (I shop in bulk when catering/entertaining) and there those little balls of goodness were. Yay! BJ's also had the golden tomatoes which I thought made the platter extra colorful and summery, though I have just used red in the past. The skewers came from Party City.

I served these Caprese Skewers at a party I catered recently for a dear friend. By the end of the party, they were gone! Along with the fruit skewers I served with a piece of strawberry, pineapple and two red grapes. Didn't get a pic because those disappeared even before the Caprese.

Both of these platters can be made in advance of your party. Enjoy!

Greek Orzo Salad

This pasta salad is the side dish for the amazing Greek entree that I created last week: Chicken Souvlaki w/ Tzatziki sauce. I actually was just going to post the chicken and save the orzo salad for the cookbook (it's actually a round two recipe for my Stuffed Peppers! Good stuff will be in that book!). However, I ventured onto twitter today and saw that Barilla Pasta is requesting that folks share their pasta salad recipes. Since I'd just finished this one, I thought I'd go ahead and post it because I think this pasta salad should definitely be featured. 

Whether you're serving this with other Greek Food or not, this is a winning salad! It's summertime fresh with the veggies and dill and all of the colors will really brighten up your table. Enjoy this one and look out for the other recipes shortly!

Greek Orzo Salad

Ingredients: (makes 4-5 side servings)

1 Cup Barilla Orzo

3 tbsp evoo

1tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt & pepper to taste

Garlic powder to taste

8-10 grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 English cucumber, diced (medium sized)

1/4 cup red onion, minced

2-3 tbsp fresh dill, roughly chopped

2/3 cup feta cheese, cubed

Directions:

Fill a medium sized pot 2/3 of the way full with water, place over high heat and bring water to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt, then the pasta and cook according to package directions. When pasta is al dente, drain and add to a medium sized bowl. 

While pasta is cooking, whisk together oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a small bowl. Pour over warm pasta, then add tomatoes, cucumber, onion, dill and stir to combine. Top with feta and enjoy. This is even better when allowed to chill in the fridge.