Pop a Bite-Sized Caprese Salad

With summer drawing to a close, and with it, the end of tomato season, I'm trying to get my fill of sugar-sweet sundrenched tomatoes. Caprese salad is always a favorite during this time of year, but I love doing a bite-size version of this classic with a rainbow assortment of heirloom cherry tomatoes. Using cherry tomatoes not only opens up a new options for presentation, it also allows you to pickle the tomatoes first.

I like to use a brine made with plenty of sea salt and vincotto. The salt helps amplify the naturally occurring glutamic acids in tomatoes imbuing them with an intense umami that makes each gem taste as flavorful as it looks. Vincotto literally translates to "cooked wine", but is actually a molasses-like syrup made from unfermented grape must. Its burnt umber color intensifies the red hue of the tomatoes, and its sweet fruity taste makes each morsel burst into a pool of delicious flavor in your mouth.

Because the waxy skins on the cherry tomatoes slows down the absorption of the brine, I like to peel the tomatoes. It's not nearly as complicated as it sounds, and all it takes is a pot of boiling water and a bowl of ice water to quickly cook the skin, and then stop the cooking, before the flesh starts to cook.

You can peel and marinate the tomatoes ahead of time, making this a perfect party-side or canape. To make it a side salad, just combine the tomatoes and mozzarella balls in a bowl and top with basil leaves. To turn this into a canapé just skewer a tomato with a basil wrapped mozzarella ball.