pesto vinaigrette caprese salad

this past year i have been experimenting a lot with making new salad dressings homemade and with my veggie & herb garden i thought why not try making pesto with all of that!!  so i did!!  i made a pesto vinaigrette using the herbs from my garden to bring to my parent's house for fathers day.  it turned out yummy!!  i love pesto!!  i think because i am a big basil and garlic fan- yummm!  and mixed with caprese.. it doesn't get much better than that!!!  my tomatoes are not ready yet in the garden so i had to buy those from the grocery store-  but hopefully they will be ready before the next time i make this!!!

first i started by making the pesto vinaigrette at my house. i think it is hard to judge measurements of herbs when you are taking them from the garden... 1-ish cup is about a large handful, 1/4 cup is a small amount of leaves and 1 T is about 1 small "branch" of the oregano

recipe:

1 cup basil
1/4 cup parsley
1 T oregano
2 small cloves of fresh garlic
1 lemon's zest
1 medium lemon juice squeezed out
1/2 cup spinach
3 tbsp white wine (not sweet)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp pine nuts
1/2 cup olive oil
salt & pepper to taste


first after the pick the herbs from your garden make sure to wash them well!!! you don't what critters and animals were sniffing & crawling in that earlier... ish!

next zest the medium lemon!! after the zesting is done cut it in half and squeeze all of the juice out.  make sure you did not get any lemon seeds into the bowl. 

add the wine, parmesan cheese, pine nuts and the rest of the ingredients and blend away!! 

pulse it a few times with your food processor.  open up and make sure everything is blended well.  taste it to see how the flavor is and add salt & pepper accordingly.  

chop up the fresh mozzarella (or buy the small ball mozzarella if you can find it) & also 4-6 basil leaves

i started by mixing a little bit of the vinaigrette into lettuce first.  then added the mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and more vinaigrette on top.  then mix mix mix!!! on top sprinkle the chopped basil leaves.

now you are ready to eat!!  enjoy!!