Heirloom Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella & Avocado Caprese Salad with Olive Oil Caviar

All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015

To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.

So – I saw THIS post from The Skinny Fork on Pinterest & was intrigued by the olive oil caviar. I promptly Googled it & about $75 later – I had 4 little jars of the stuff in different flavors. I bought it HERE.

This is what they say about it at Gordon-Gourmet.com:

“About Caviaroli ®

Caviaroli is fine Spanish olive oil that is encapsulated to mimic the delicate refinement of caviar. The concept transpired back in 2008 when Ferrán Adrià created this innovative product and produced it in small quantities, inspiring others to take part in this surprising enterprise. Pere Castells, technical director of Fundació Alicia, introduced olive oil caviar to the Caviaroli team and helped begin research on production. For two years, the team worked enjoyably at mastering the technology which initially was a challenge. Finally, the first olive oil caviar was created outside of El Bulli’s kitchen, and soon it was presented to Ferràn Adrià, who promptly ordered 10kg in less than a week. Adrià considered this new caviar good enough to be served at El Bulli, the restaurant where he worked as head chef. He even presented the product in a lecture at Harvard, saying that “soon the olive oil caviar will be available,” and in jest added, “…but it can only be done with Spanish olive oil”, encouraging the use of quality grade Spanish products.

In 2011 at the Australian Fine Food’s Show, Caviaroli won “Best new Foodservice product award”, and in 2012 the production plant in Spain was registered and Caviaroli was approved by the FDA. Stored in a sleek glass bottle, the Caviar will stay fresh for up to twelve months–the same as regular bottled olive oil.”

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There it it! Cool looking, no? I used a basil flavored one. I did not add the traditional basil to my dish here because I knew fresh basil would overpower the caviar & I wanted to experience it. (I also think balsamic vinegar overpowers caprese salads & never add it.) The olive oil caviar tastes strongly of olive oil – the basil flavor is barely a tiny hint.

If you do not want to invest in something like this caviar – just drizzle olive oil & add some fresh chopped basil to your caprese. By the way – caprese is pronounced like this: