First Tomatoes of the Season! Caprese-Style Salad with Beans

On Sunday, when it was so hot outside, I was working at the Farmers' Market running around sweating buckets, lovely.  Lucky for me though one of the vendors had tomatoes!  Since we only buy tomatoes when they are in season, I have been waiting for this day for a long time.  Finally!  What better way to showcase fresh tomatoes than in a simple raw salad.

Caprese-Style Salad with Beans
A Kelly Original Creation
Serves 3
(Other than tomatoes and beans, all measurements are "ish")

4 medium tomatoes, cubed/chunked however you like to eat them

1 can canellini beans, drained and rinsed

1T or more fresh basil, cut into thin strips

1c fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed

3T olive oil

1T red wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1.  Add tomatoes to bowl and season with a little salt.  Stir and let sit while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.  This allows the tomato juices to come out and adds to the dressing.

2.  Add the rest of the ingredients, one at a time, stirring and checking seasoning after each addition.  I did it this way because I really didn't measure any ingredients or seasonings and just went on what tasted good.

3.  Serve it up with some nice crusty bread.  I used a roasted garlic loaf from Mariano's that was quite tasty and complimented the flavors in the tomato salad nicely.

Background and Inspiration for this Dish:  Ryan and I love the ingredients of a caprese salad, but don't really like the traditional serving of it with big slices of tomato and cheese and whole basil leaves, so I always make it into a "chopped" salad.  Last night I wanted the tomato salad to be the star (entree) of dinner since I was so excited to be eating fresh tomatoes again, so I needed to add some protein.  Beans are always our go-to protein so it made perfect sense to add some cannellini beans to the salad.  They add some texture and don't take away from the flavor of the salad.  Traditionally I would use balsamic vinegar, but I was out of it and needed to make due with what I had on hand - red wine vinegar - or go without.  Ryan likes the tang the vinegar adds, so I went with the red wine vinegar and it worked just fine.  Go ahead and use balsamic if you prefer. 

If you have any versions of a fresh tomato salad that you do or come up with any good additions to this one, I'd love to hear about it.

P.S. The tomatoes tasted so good I'm emailing the farmer today to thank him.  Hopefully the tomatoes in our garden taste as good.