Spring

Trifle Caprese: let tomatoes and mozzarella do the charm

by:
June  4, 2021
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Photo by marxoign
  • Prep time 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Cook time 30 minutes
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

This recipe is the combination of two things that I am always happy to eat and of which there simply is never enough!

Everyone knows insalata caprese a.k.a. tomato mozzarella. For me, that's the dish you can put together after a hard day's work and its fresh taste and smooth texture balances out just about anything bad that could have happened at work.

Trifle is another story. I would love to eat trifle more often but well, it's a bit of work. For me, it's quite linked to family gatherings, as one of the specialties of my cousin's South African boyfriend is trifle. And what a trifle!

So here, the idea is to bring these two emotions together and try out what a caprese-falvored salty trifle could look like. Hope you'll enjoy! I sure did!

NOTA: I wrote the recipe with two individual servings in mind. One could do one big trifle but in that case, you'll probably need much more burrata and mozzarella. —marxoign

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 Burrata di Bufala
  • 1 Mozzarella di Bufala
  • 12 Brown olives
  • 1 Slice of bread
  • 4 San Marzano Tomatoes (around 1.3 lbs))
  • 1 bunch Cherry Tomatoes
  • 1 bunch Basil
  • 1/2 cup Milk
  • 3 Sheets of gelatine (~3 tsp)
  • Olive oil
  • Balsamico
  • Crema di Balsamico
  • Salt, pepper
  • 2 Nice glass bowls for serving individual portions
Directions
  1. TOMATO JELLO - STEP 1: Cut San Marzano tomatoes into larger cubes, chop a few basil leaves. Combine in a small pot, season with olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of lemon juice. Simmer on very low heat until tomatoes release all their juice (around 20 min.) When ready, strain and reserve at room temperature.
  2. OLIVES: chop the olives into small pieces.
  3. BURRATA MIX: with a food processor, mix burrata with a pinch of salt, pepper and olive oil into a cream.
  4. BREAD: Toast a slice of bread and cut it into small cubes.
  5. TOMATO JELLO - STEP 2: Dip 1.5 gelatine leaves in very cold water. Meanwhile, separate the tomato sauce into two equal parts*. Pour one in a small pot and reserve the other. Heat up on very low heat (remain well below boiling). When gelatine has softened up, mix it into it with a whisk. Let cool down. * This layer is the same as the top layer (contrary to my photo which had two kinds of tomato sauces - that just complicates everything). Depending on the shape of your glass container, you may want to split the sauce 50-50 (if your container is straight) or 33-66 (if, like mine, it is narrower on the bottom and larger towards the top). Consequently, gelatine proportions must be adapted too.
  6. LAYERING - STEP 1: Make sure that every layer is as flat as possible. Also, wait until the tomato jello cooled down to room temperature. Then: - Lay 1 tbsp of olives at the bottom of each glass bowl, pour balsamico on them. - Lay burrata cream on olives. - Lay pieces of toast on burrata and pour tomato jello. - Immediately put in the fridge.
  7. MOZARELLA CREAM: Cut the mozzarella (keep a little aside) into small pieces and put in a food processor's bowl. Add milk, basil leaves to taste. Season with olive oil, balsamico, salt, pepper. Mix into a smooth cream. Reserve.
  8. TOMATO SLICES: Carefully cut out slices of cherry tomatoes of the same sizes for the decoration of the top layer. So this means +/- 3 slices from the middle of each tomato. No worries, the leftovers are used in the next step. Reserve.
  9. TOMATO SALAD: Dice the remainders of the cherry tomatoes and mozarella and season with olive oil, crema di balsamico, salt, pepper. Strain (there should really be no liquid left).
  10. TOMAT0 JELLO - STEP 3: Do again Tomato jello - step 2 with rest of tomato sauce.
  11. LAYERING - STEP 2: Take your bowls out of the fridge. - lay thin layer of mozzarella cream. - nicely lay cherry tomato slices on the sides of the dish (see picture) - lay tomato-mozarella salad in the middle. - top with remaining mozzarella cream. - when the jello is at room temperature, fully cover the mozarella cream with jello. - Immediately put in the fridge.
  12. DECORATION: - While waiting for the jello to freeze, roast pine seeds - When the jello has set, lay drops crema di balsamico on the top, add pine seeds. Maybe lay a few basil leaves. You can even make a tomato flower. That's all up to you!
  13. Enjoy!!!

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