Wonderful warm summer days! We have a lot of them these these days. Too many actually. So we need to adapt our nutritional habits to the new weather conditions. This means light and healthy food! And certainly no dishes for which you need to work hours in an overheated kitchen. This arugula Caprese with mini fried egg is ideal as a light lunch or starter. It is a twist on the classic Caprese with tomato, mozzarella and basil. Further down in the article you can learn everything about Caprese. And of course also about the "mini fried egg". This is the surprising gimmick of this dish.
Arugula Caprese with mini fried egg
Ingredients
- 200 gram Mozzarella
- 25 gram arugula salad
- 1 tomatoes
- 1 egg look at separate instructions for mini fried egg
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- lemon zest
Instructions
- Place an egg in the freezer the day before. Read the article "mini fried eggs" to know how to make them. Alternatively, you can also hard boil an egg and cut it into slices.
- Mix the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, white wine vinegar and honey in a small saucepan. Bring this to the boil briefly so that the honey dissolves and the ingredients integrate well with each other. Then let it cool.
- Cut the Mozzarella ball and the tomato into slices about half a centimeter thick.
- Finely chop the arugula salad.
- Make a bed of arugula salad on the plate.
- Then arrange the tomato slices, Mozzarella and a few basil leaves on top. You can either work in height with further layers. Or build smaller towers next to each other.
- Finish the tower with a mini fried egg.
Notes
- You can also replace the mini fried eggs with a slice of hard-boiled egg. But a mini fried egg is much more fun. Normally you get three from one chicken egg. More explanation and the recipe can be found in the article “mini fried eggs“.
Nutrition
About arugula Caprese with mini fried egg
This arugula Caprese with mini fried egg is a twist on the traditional Italian Caprese. That consists of tomato, mozzarella and basil. Of course caprese is delicious already as a standard version. But here we have opted for two extra surprising components: arugula salad and mini fried eggs.
The arugula salad
The arugula salad is very tasty and I use it in many dishes. As I am a big fan of its specific taste. I cut it medium small, so you can arrange it well on the plate. Of course you can also use other salad types. like for example lambs lettuce.
The mini fried eggs
The mini fried eggs are somehow the surprising gimmick of this dish. And before you read on, try to answer the following question: “How can you make three mini fried eggs from one chicken egg?"
It is logical that you cannot divide a fresh chicken egg into three without major problems. That simply doesn't work. But there is a kitchen hack for that. Start by placing the egg in the freezer overnight. After you have kept it under warm water for a while, you can peel it. Then cut the frozen egg into slices. And then you fry these in a pan. The frozen pieces of egg will go from frozen to fried almost immediately, without much spreading. And so you have mini fried eggs.
Are you not convinced yet? Then read the article “mini-fried eggs“. This kitchen hack really works, and it's fun to discuss this around the table.
The dressing for this arugula salad with mini fried egg
The dressing brings the full flavor of the Caprese. I like to combine balsamic and honey. Here I additionally opted for white wine vinegar and olive oil. To dissolve the honey, briefly heat the ingredients for the dressing in a pan and bring it to a boil. If you let this boil down for a while, you will get a very tasty syrup.
About Caprese
But what is in fact Caprese? Where does it originate from? And why is it called Caprese? We checked it out for you.
Caprese actually means as much as "Capri style salad". Yes, the romantic Capri near Naples. It is a simple salad with the Italian colors formed by Mozzarella, basil and tomatoes.
As with many ancient recipes, there is much debate about its provenance and origin. But the dish is said to have been served for the first time at Quisisana Grand, a hotel in Capri, in the 1920s. The chef of the hotel created this salad on the occasion of the visit of the artist Filippo Marinetti. Because he was very critical of the Italian cuisine, which he found too heavy. So the Chef created this new salad with a nationalistic twist in the colors of the Italian flag.
- Caprese salad: the Italian recipe for the summer (Eat and walk Italy).
- Insalata Caprese (Italy heritage).
- Salted or sweet: the history of the Neapolitean Caprese double recipe (Visit Naples).
More surprising.summer
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, summers are getting longer and hotter. As a consequence, we need to adapt our eating habits to the new climate. So you may also want to try these summer dishes to cope with all those heatwaves:
- Watermelon gazpacho.
- Summer lunch with chicken and croutons.
- Carrot-apple salad.
- Easy apple-potato salad.
- Creamy peach gazpacho with almonds.
- Strawberry watermelon salad.
More surprising.starter
You can have this arugula Caprese with mini fried eggs as a light lunch in summer. But also as a starter for any season of the year. These are some more starters that might interest you:
- Hot smoked salmon with cucumber and apple.
- Smoked chicken with avocado.
- Fresh fig carpaccio.
- Quail eggs tonnato.
- Delicious smoked mackerel salad.
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.
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