Caprese Salad Canapes

Caprese Salad Canapes

These are almost embarrassingly easy to make, and they are absolutely delicious.

You will need:

• A handful of 4" fancy toothpicks, 30 or 40 (or you can make shorter ones; they'll go further)
• 2 10-oz. plastic packages of grape tomatoes
• 1 good-sized bunch of fresh basil
• 1   8-oz. package of Bel Gioiosa Mozzarella "Pearls"   ["wet" type mozzarella separated into tiny pieces and smooshed into a sealed package -- you will be amazed -- this package is the size of a tennis ball, but when you open it, you will have enough to make a tray like this and have some left over.] 
• Good olive oil (optional)

Easy as anything you'll ever make.  Just alternate tomato, cheese, basil, tomato, cheese, basil until you have used everything up.  Fold each basil leaf over with the glossy side out before skewering on picks.  Makes about 35 or 40.   If you want to, you can chop a few basil leaves, put them in about 1/4 cup of olive oil, and put it in a small container in the center of the platter for dipping.  (I don't recommend drizzling these with the oil; you are going to have a mess.)

This is a good project to do with kids, because it looks great, is very easy, and will give them a genuine sense of accomplishment.  It's also a great task to share with someone you haven't seen in a long time -- my daughter and I put these together when she was here on an all too rare visit from Virginia with her husband, and it was so nice to talk and spend a little time together.

Anyway, serves about 15 guests.  Obviously, quantities can be increased as needed.  Enjoy! 

Cecilia Theresa Philomena Kelly-Bredenbeck's Marinara Sauce (we were good 'til we got to the Kelly-Bredenbeck, no? )

(Photo credit:  Lori  Lange) 

1 28-oz. can crushed tomatoes

2 28-oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 lg. or 2 small cans tomato paste
2 garlic cloves
1 chopped onion
inner stalks and leaves of one bunch celery
1 tsp. oregano
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp. ground sage
1 tsp. thyme
fresh rosemary leaves if you have it, a scant handful chopped up
2 T olive oil

Crush garlic cloves and saute with onion in olive oil in bottom of a 5-quart to 8-quart pan. Add celery and saute a little more, add tomatoes and tomato paste, stir in herbs. Simmer for AT LEAST 6-8 hours, either on the stove while stirring frequently, or in a crockpot set on "high" for 6 hours and "low" for the rest of the cooking time. (You can even skip the "high" setting and just simmer this on "low" overnight if you like. The idea is to cook it for a LONG time but not at a high temperature.)

You can change this up according to what you have in the house. Want to make more?  Throw in another can or two of crushed tomatoes. If you don't like celery in there, fine. If you want to throw in some fennel seed, fine. If you're out of sage, what the hell is wrong with you? Just kidding -- if you're out of sage, that's fine. If there's any herb on the list you don't like, leave it out. If there's one you don't have, don't worry. It's all according to your taste. If you're out of olive oil, you'll want to kill the no-good who decided to put it where you can't find it, because you always have olive oil, right? RIGHT? Who doesn't have good olive oil in the house? Oh, my God! What kind of cook doesn't have olive oil?

You can brown a pound of whatever meat you have (beef, turkey, chicken) and add that, or you can add MorningStar Farms Crumbles. You can also add a pound of browned Italian sausage, hot or mild.

In fact, once you have the bare bones of it made, add whatever you like. This is a good base sauce, and you can build it into a fairly respectable puttanesca, arrabiatta, or whatever else you like. I like to serve it over angel hair (cappellini) cooked al dente, but it's good with anything else, too. Throw in some clams and serve it over linguini; what do I care?  Do I look like I care?  Go ahead -- spoil this beautiful sauce by putting it over linguini, after I took the trouble to write out the recipe!  Pheh!  (Just kidding --  just enjoy it -- that's the important part!)