Jamie Oliver once made a salad with sliced tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, sweet basil leaves, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. And I thought it looked fantastic and I wanted to lick my TV screen. I also knew that fresh mozzarella (those little balls of soft cheese, not the stuff one normally finds in supermarkets) is quite expensive. So I simply made a mental note of Jamie’s salad recipe and decided I’d try it when I find reasonably-priced good quality mozzarella.
A couple of days ago, I was able to buy a book on French cooking (the cuisine of Provence, to be precise) and there was a recipe very similar to Jamie Oliver’s. But it isn’t a salad — it is a tart. And it has goat cheese rather than mozzarella. And I had this idea inside my head to make Jamie’s salad but using goat cheese just like the tart in the cookbook. I called up my husband and asked him to pass by Santi’s (or whatever deli he finds along the way) and buy goat cheese. When he got home…
… I saw the price of the cheese and… P273.00 for 45 grams of herbed goat cheese? Shucks, perhaps I should have asked him to buy fresh mozzarella instead. I don’t know if it’s the “herbed” part that made it so expensive but, I gotta say, it did taste absolutely divine in my salad.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- 2 small waxy potatoes, boiled in salted water then cooled (if you’re in a hurry, dump in iced water after cooking to cool then drain)
2 to 3 plump, red, juicy tomatoes
45 g. of goat cheese
salt
sugar
about 6 large or 12 small sweet basil leaves, thinly sliced
extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Peel the potatoes and slice, about a quarter of an inch thick. Slice the tomatoes as well. And the cheese. Ideally, you should have equal number of slices for all three ingredients. For two persons, about six slices each of tomatoes, potatoes and cheese.
Sprinkle the tomatoes with a little sugar. Sprinkle the potatoes with a little salt.
Arrange the tomatoes, potatoes and cheese alternately to form a circle. Sprinkle the basil leaves over them. Drizzle with olive oil and serve. Trust me, this is a delicious salad. And the potatoes make it quite filling too. Speedy and I had this for lunch today. Just the salad and egg-drop soup and we were happy.
Quick Notes
I used herbed goat cheese so I didn’t add any pepper to the salad. If using plain goat cheese, you may want to add some freshly ground black pepper.
No lemon juice nor vinegar was used. The tomatoes were acidic enough.
Cooking time (duration): 10 minutes
Number of servings (yield): 2
You can make you own Goat cheese. I did it and it was easy using goat milk and culture.
Where did you buy the culture?
Ha ha, I was thinking to myself that unless there’s native Philippine goat cheese, that goat cheese would easily cost more than fresh mozzarella! I live in Japan and it’s the same deal….I love goat cheese but can never buy it.
Interesting bit of trivia. Do you know Mozzarella is really made of carabao milk – aka queso puti? I was taken by surprise upon learning this. Apparently asiatic buffalos made it all the way to Italy via Marco Polo or even earlier through trade. I tried it Just prepare the queso puti by emersing them in briny water. I hope this helps make ‘mozzarella’ cheaper for you.
Elaine, with so many goats just roaming around the rural areas, I’m wondering why goat milk and cheese are not important agri products in this country.
Maria, even kesong puti is not cheap, especially the kind wrapped in banana leaves.
Oh dear. That’s just too bad.
I know.
thank you connie for this recipe.tried it today,it was really nice and simple to make.galing-galing!thank God for helping me discover ur site.and thank you for unselfishly sharing ur talents sa mga katulad ko who find it a chore thinking of what to cook for my husband and kids dahil sa unlimited knowledge about cooking.i’ve tried your chicken teriyaki,baked salmon with mixed veggies,beef with cabbage,braised pork,they were all good.everyday,i look forward to looking for new recipes to try thru your site.thanks a lot and Godbless!
Woh! That is really expensive! So, I guess I am little lucky to have a small stock of goat cheese in the fridge. My brother-in-law took home lots of them from Turkey. My husband’s granny makes her own cheese in the province, then ship some to my in-laws in Istanbul. White cheese is a staple for Turkish breakfast. Hubby loves it a lot.
This is so very simple yet super healthy and delicious.