After the Backyard Farms event, I came home with a bunch of tomatoes and the memory of the flavors of the lobster caprese salad Neptune Oyster's chef Michael Serpa had prepared. I decided I would try to re-create the caprese salad at home -- using chicken instead (since Jeff can't eat lobster).
We made a quick trip the grocery store, and then I gathered all my ingredients: chicken, bread, olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, lettuce (not found in the original salad but something I wanted to add), basil, chives, lemon, shallot, salt and pepper, and mozzarella.
I pounded two chicken breasts, just to an even thickness, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and handed them off to Jeff, who took them out to the grill. While he grilled the chicken, I cut a couple thick slices of Italian bread and brushed them with olive oil on both sides. Once the chicken was done, he put the bread on the grill and let it get lightly charred on each side. I rubbed the grilled bread with the cut side of a garlic clove half.
In a large bowl, I combined torn pieces of lettuce and basil, thinly sliced shallot, snipped chives, and salt and pepper.
I squeezed a lemon wedge over the whole thing and drizzled in a little olive oil and then tossed everything together. Then I took the grilled chicken and cut it in bite-size pieces and sliced up some mozzarella and threw the cheese and chicken on top.
I put a piece of grilled bread on each of our plates, and then we both took some of the salad. I added quartered Backyard Farms cocktail tomatoes to my dish while Jeff went tomato-less.
Of course, this salad was not nearly as good as the one I had at the Backyard Farms event (it had no lobster for starters), but it was a very fresh, summery salad and came together really quickly. We'll definitely be eating it again, and I'll probably play around with adding different ingredients and flavors.
Have you made any summery salads lately?