Sun-Dried Tomato Salad

I've made this one a couple of times already, I love it. My closest friends, that I hadn't seen in forever, came over and after a rough night all I could bring myself to make for them was this. I love mozzarella so this super simple salad creates some interesting flavors. If you close your eyes, you just might see yourself in a remote house in Italy, sitting outside with the warm afternoon sun in the distance and an evening breeze starting to gently blow through the valley. No promises though.

Sun-Dried Tomato Salad

Origin: 'The Big Book of Salads' by LoveFood

Yield: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 100g / 3 and 1/2 oz of mixed salad leaves, such as oak-leaf lettuce, baby spinach and rocket
• 500g / 1lb 2 oz smoked mozzarella, sliced
• 140g / 5 oz sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil (drained weight), reserving the oil from the bottle
• 15g / 1/2 oz of fresh basil, roughly shredded
• 15g / 1/2 oz fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp of capers, rinsed
• 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
• extra olive oil, if necessary
• pepper

Directions:

1. To make the dressing, put the sun-dried tomatoes, basil, parsley, capers, vinegar and garlic in a food processor or blender.
2. Measure the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes jar and make it up to 150ml / 5 fl oz with more olive oil if necessary. Add it to the food processor or blender and process until smooth. Season with pepper
3. Divide the salad leaves between 4 individual serving plates.
4. Top with the slices of mozzarella and spoon the dressing over them. Serve immediately