Leave The Salad to The Amateurs

Capping off my week of tomatoes, below is my recipe for a risotto dish that’s inspired by the classic Caprese salad. This salad is all about summer with its fresh tomatoes (I always use heirlooms), mozzarella cheese and basil, simply dressed with good olive oil and sea salt. (A tip for the guys out there, the girls love this combination of tomato and cheese. I think because it’s filling but doesn’t look very heavy, and it’s still called a salad!)

I actually made this Caprese salad-turned-risotto dish after reading a similar recipe in the San Francisco Chronicle last week. So I can’t take credit for inventing this dish. OK, I could. But I have a thing about karma biting me in the butt. As always, my recipe has a few tweaks and it makes fewer servings for the single people out there.

When I made this dish, I used Costaluto Genovese heirloom tomatoes I got at the farmers market and these incredibly cute bocconcini (marble-sized mozzarella balls) I found at the Pasta Shop at Rockridge’s Market Hall. The risotto turned out having this intense tomato flavor, almost like ketchup. So if you’re not a big fan of ketchup, then maybe this isn’t for you. But lucky for me, I love ketchup (I even drizzle it on scrambled eggs or on rice) so this dish hits the spot. Enjoy!