Hasselback salad caprese has giant summer heirloom or beefsteak tomatoes loaded with  mozzarella and fresh basil, for a stunning presentation in this summery Italian-Swedish fusion salad.

Hasselback Salad Caprese

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

June is finally here! And it’s certainly time for me to rise from the dead after being awol from the blog for just over a week.  I’d love to say I was sunning  myself down  on  a beach in Mexico but the truth is I wasn’t feeling too well. My blood sugar was off kilter too and I am on a medication switch as well as delving deeper low carb than I have before. You see, I am a diabetic. And while I do  make many desserts for family and friends, I don’t partake of those much myself.

A few days into new meds and the blood sugar is great,  but I am  still weighing  more than I care to, so will be doing the dieting for a long while.

But Bill wants to low carb with me for the  interim to take off a few pounds too, so you may see me making some  different recipes than I have recently. I still have a backlog of recipes to share so there will be a mix, but my resident guinea pigs who love gobbling up my sugary creations may be in for a drought.

I do a lot of vegetable things for myself so look for a bit of vegan as well, although not too heavy into grains or soy. If I add a little meat to those, you can always “edit” those out. 😉

If you are interested in diabetic, low carb, keto and paleo recipes, I will probably have quite a few more for you. But don’t look for me to follow a particular lifestyle. In some cases I won’t be teetotaling  carbs, but you can make adjustments for your own particular needs.

In my recipe for today, it is pretty big (and also pretty glamorous looking if you  ask me) but it is probably something you might want to eat as a non-lettuce dinner salad,  or share with a friend. It is obviously more than I can eat at one sitting. I like it with a piece of toasted sourdough bread for a bruschetta-like effect. Bread always pairs well with tomatoes.  And yeah, it’s not low carb, but I tested fine with a small piece of bread without loading other grains into the meal. Like I said. Not a teetotaler.

I have some tomatoes in the garden so this will be great come late July into August- and I have an heirloom  that is growing amazingly fast- although the tomatoes themselves take longer than some. I also bought an early girl  plant to help out with the wait. Last year I grew a ton  of cherry tomatoes  and while I love snacking on those and making little salads, bypassed them this year. I am also growing eggplants, zucchini, snap peas, and the resident herbs and peppers. Are you growing anything in particular this year? Talk to me in the comments!

Hasselback Salad Caprese

• Servings: 1-2
• Time: 10mins
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1 large ripe heirloom/beefsteak tomato
• 4 ounces fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese
• small handful fresh basil leaves
• 1-2 teaspoons balsamic reduction
• 1-2 teaspoons extra-virgin  olive oil
• salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Make slices in tomato  (top to bottom) without slicing all the way through.
2. Slice buffalo mozz in a similar width to the  slices on the tomato.
3. Gently pry the tomato open  and tuck a slice of cheese  in , along with a little bit of basil.
4. Drizzle lightly with balsamic reduction and olive oil, seasoning with  salt and pepper as well.

From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

Cheese!  Glorious Cheese!

The Festive Foodies group is teaming with  Camilla Mann at Culinary Adventures with Camilla for this cheese event.

See the collection  of recipes below!

• Carlee from Cooking with Carlee: Bacon Bruschetta Cheese Ball
• Cindy from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings: Beefy Bacon Mac and Cheese
• Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla: Cheese, Please!
• Jolene from Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Cheesy Black Bean Nachos
• Karen from Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Dill and Cheddar Sourdough Bread
• Sue from Palatable Pastime: Hasselback Salad Caprese
• Coleen from The Redhead Baker: Honey, Basil, and Peach Baked Brie
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm: Philly Cheesesteak Burgers
• Eileen from Everyday Eileen: Pimento Cheese Dip
• Amy of Amy’s Cooking Adventures: Tuscan Roma Pizza