Insalata Caprese is one of the simplest and most delicious of dishes. It requires only the right ingredients and the right season. The season first. This is basically a summer dish from which follow the ingredients: it should be made only with local vine-ripened tomatoes that are red, juicy and flavorful but not overly soft, and preferably unrefrigerated or only minimally so.

The next ingredient should be truly fragrant, flavorful young basil: green basil grown in the earth and sun, not the hydroponically grown giant leaf variety which has little flavor. The next essential ingredient is good quality fresh, moist mozzarella. Ideally, this would be the true mozzarella di bufala, a specialty of the Naples region, but this is rather expensive even in Italy and available here, via air, only in specialty urban markets. Good fresh cow's milk mozzarella (called Fior di latte) does just as well. Never use the yellow plastic-sheathed supermarket variety! Finally, you need genuine extra-virgin olive oil and only olive oil, the best you can afford.

(adapted from In Italy Online)