red, white, and green

one of my all-time favorite summer dishes is caprese salad; basically, a combination of 3 ingredients: tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella, drizzled with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and seasoned with a little salt and pepper.

it goes without saying how easy this is to assemble. there's really no rules. chop and toss everything together in a bowl; slice and stack on a plate; whatever. but another great thing about this is that the quality of the ingredients makes a dramatic difference to the finished product with very little extra effort. sure, you can get by on grocery store tomatoes and packaged basil, but swap those for vine ripened, farm fresh tomatoes and fresh picked basil and your at a whole different level.