Mr. G.Q. LOVES a Caprese salad and usually orders one whenever we go out to dinner. Since going out has definitely become a thing of the past, I decided to make up a riff on his favorite. Check out this gorgeous Roasted Red Pepper and Cherry Tomato Salad! It is very Mediterranean in its flavors and it only takes a few minutes to assemble. Here’s how I did it:

Roasted Red Pepper and Cherry Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

–4 medium red bell peppers

-one to two tsp extra virgin olive oil

-1 Tablespoon capers, rinsed, and drained

-1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives

-one half to one full tsp red wine vinegar

-1 tsp lemon zest

-1/2 medium sized red onion, sliced into thin rings, and then halved

-16 cherry tomatoes, halved

-6 ounces of mozzarella balls, cut into bite-sized pieces

-2 tsp of sundried tomatoes in oil, chopped finely

-fresh basil leaves, chopped finely

-kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Heat broiler with rack in top position. Place peppers on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Broil, turning occasionally, until charred on all sides and tender, about ten minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let steam for 20 minutes. Rub the peppers with paper towels to remove the skin. Stem, seed, and cut the peppers into lengthwise strips.
2. Arrange the peppers on individual salad plates. Drizzle with olive oil.
3. Now arrange the cherry tomatoes, onion slices, and mozzarella pieces over the peppers.
4. Arrange the capers, olives and lemon zest over the dish. Drizzle on the red wine vinegar.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle on the basil.
6. Lastly, arrange the sundried tomatoes evenly on each salad.
7. Enjoy!

This is such a tasty salad! You can assemble most of it early in the day. To do this, hold off on the olive oil, vinegar, and sundried tomatoes. Arrange everything else on the individualized salad plates. Since the ingredients aren’t very fragile, you can then cover each plate with plastic wrap and then stack the salads on top of one another until the mealtime.

This is when you can add the omitted ingredients. Feel free to delete any ingredients you don’t like. The overall effect will be DELICIOUS! Please let me know if you make this Roasted Red Pepper and Cherry Tomato Salad! This salad is great with chicken, fish or beef. It’s so colorful and full of delicious textures! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!