Caprese Toas-Tite: a toasty taste of Italy

Yesterday, Boy and I made a couple of really fun Toas-Tites.  I have a pretty big weakness for caprese salad.  Well…really, I have a weakness for fresh mozzarella…and tomatos…and basil.  In any case, I’ve been wanting to experiment with those ingredients in Toas-Tite form for a while.

So Boy and I each gave it a go with a slight variation on each of ours.

Ingredients

• Sourdough bread (sliced)
• Softened butter (unsalted or salted is up to you)
• Fresh mozzarella
• Your favorite tomatoes, diced (cherry or grape tomatoes cut out some of the necessary chopping)
• Fresh basil (chopped) or pesto
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Slice up all your ingredients (mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes) into Toas-Tite sized pieces.  In our case, Boy and I used an imersion blender to slice up the fresh basil into fine pieces (closer to a pesto consistency).  We also used grape tomatoes and cut each one into 4-6 pieces.

Butter one side of each piece of sourdough bread.  Place one of these pieces, butter side down (of course) onto the Toas-Tite.  On top of this piece of bread, add your filling, somewhat alternating the layers of basil, tomato, and mozzarella.  Here you can consider adding the option/variation ingredients listed below.  Sprinkle in salt and/or pepper to taste.

Cover your filling with the other slice of bread, buttered side up.  Close your Toas-Tite and trim off the excess bread.  Toast it up!

Before you bite into your delicious caprese Toas-Tite, let it cool off a bit.  The juice from the tomatoes plus the melty mozzarella can be very hot.

Variations

• Add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil to your filling or on to one side of the bread
• Add in a few small pieces of sundried tomatoes to give it some punch

Notes

Boy and I each tried a different variation of the caprese Toas-Tite.  I added a few bits of sundried tomato bruschetta throughout the Toas-Tite to give it a bit more tomatoey kick.  Boy added a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top of the filling.  It soaked through a bit to one side of the bread (thanks very much, Mr. Gravity); but next time, we’re going to try mixing up the other ingredients with the balsamic/olive oil prior to adding it into the Toas-Tite.

Amazingly, the sourdough bread we used was actually larger than the Toas-Tite so we could orient both slices of bread the same way.  I think it’s the first bread we’ve seen that’s big enough.  When you’re choosing your bread, keep in mind the holey-ness of the bread.  It would be a shame to lose any of your filling to holey bread.

In terms of the fresh mozzarella, to help it get distributed evenly but not too thickly, we used pearls so we could sprinkle them throughout the Toas-Tite.  If those are not available, cutting up your mozzarella into 1/8 or 1/4 inch cubes (1/8 is closer to pearl size but 1/4 would probably be just fine too).

On the ingredients list, you’ll note we list fresh basil or pesto.  If you try pesto, just pay attention to how oily it is – of course, the more oil in it, the more it will soak into the bread while you’re toasting.

Conclusion

Whether you use it as an hors d’ouevre Toas-Tite or a sandwichy Toas-Tite, a caprese Toas-Tite is a winner in my book (and Boy’s book too).  If you’re in the mood for something a little fancier, give either variation a try.  They’re both equally wonderful.  Just in different ways.

by Girl