This really is the world's easiest appetizer - and it looks so pretty when it's done. It's best in
the Summer months when the tomatoes are at their sweetest and there's wonderful fresh basil available
just about everywhere. But with the red,white and green colors, this would be great around
Christmastime if you live somewhere that has fresh basil and nice tomatoes available in December.
You only need three ingredients: fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and some small tomatoes. Don't
substitute the mozzarella that's firm and packaged in the plastic shrink-wrap. You'll want to find
the fresh mozzarella that's packaged in water in little tubs. The tomatoes I found are sugar plum
tomatoes. I used the little Ciliegine (little cherry size) mozzarella, but if you can only find
the larger balls, just cut them down to about the same size as the tomatoes. Because this mozzarella
IS packaged in water, I drained it and then put it on paper towels to soak up any excess moisture.
All you have to do is use a toothpick to skewer up a tomato, a leaf or two of basil (fold the large
leaves in half), and a piece of the cheese. So simple...
... and look how pretty they are on a serving plate!
They're great just like this - or if you're feeling like getting a little fancier you can drizzle on a
wee bit of extra virgin olive oil or some balsalmic vinaigrette right at serving time.
