Caprese Alla Mani

I love all things Italian and insalata caprese is one of them. This simple salad is the perfect combination of ingredients for a happy mouth. 

The other day, I broke the rule of simplicity of this dish and added a few extra ingredients to make it caprese alla mani. I wouldn't have done so but the baby spinach was soon going bad so I decided to incorporate it into my other caprese ingredients. 

Caprese alla mani is simply the basic caprese ingredients: tomato, mozzarella and basil incorporated with baby spinach leaves, butter beans, and pieces of prosciutto crudo (thinly sliced and uncooked). I would have used cannellini beans instead if I've had them in the kitchen. Of course, I added salt and extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar as dressing. 

It was the perfect combination for a heartier salad with extra source of iron from the spinach.

Another way to prepare caprese with a twist, is by using your basic caprese ingredients, and wait for it... add nectarine!

On the side, are Tuscan herb flat bread crackers. I loved the combination. Josh said that the nectarine overpowered some of the flavors, to him, the fact that we had really flavorful nectarines was more of a setback but I loved the acidity and the sweetness of the fruit combined with the salty flavors of the balsamic and it complemented the mozzarella and tomatoes well. 

Maybe next time I should keep the really flavorful nectarines to be eaten by themselves, and the not so flavorful ones to be incorporated. But in conclusion, I will definitely try this again. 

And just because I love miniatures and we are talking about caprese, check out this totally awesome caprese bruschetta miniature.