Funghi Caprese (Caprese Mushrooms)

To have a little fun making caprese, take some mozzarella bocconcini and cap them off with heirloom cherry tomatoes to make little mushrooms. The tomatoes I used were Olivette Juane (yellow, egg shaped), Fuzzy Peach (a pale yellow tomato that actually has peach fuzz) and a Burgundy Roma. 

Slice a bit off the bottom of the bocconcini to help them stand up. Then sliced tomatoes in half (or a bit less) and cut out the middle membrane so they sit on top of the bocconcini.  Carefully place them on fresh basil leaves from the garden and made a little stream of aged balsamic running through the middle. (Our bottle was brought back from Pienza,Tuscany). A sprinkle of oregano and some course sea salt sprinkled over the top of the tomatoes made them look a bit spotted. 

My favorite way to eat these is simply dig into the whole mushroom then mop up some of the balsamic... then pop the whole thing right in my mouth.....

When tasting something exceptional, my father used to pinch his fingers together, hold them up to the corner of his mouth, and while twisting his fingers let out a little kiss--Molto bouno!

Boun appetito! .


--Jerry Finzi

Copyright 2016, Jerry Finzi/Grand Voyage Italy - All Rights Reserved