Caprese Salad

For those of you who would think that it's impossible to enjoy a Caprese Salad without the mozzarella, think again. I have found an excellent substitution to the "C" word in the form of a pignoli ricotta.

The recipe comes from Raw Food Real World, an excellent "uncook" book that I use ALL of the time. In fact, that's where I've been the last five or so odd months, tinkering around with my new dehydrator making things like buckwheat pizza crusts, cranberry and maple "grawnola", macadamia cheese, and my personal favorite, "Zucchini and Green Zebra Tomato Lasagne." This shit is the biz-omb. I've made this so many times that the pages for the book are splattered with pesto and tomato juice. Incidentally, this is where the recipe for the pignoli ricotta comes from.

No dehydrator necessary for this recipe, it's super easy and tastes wonderful on a warm summer's day. Serve it on a bed of greens, or just serve it plain, on a plate with a little olive oil drizzled over the top and a touch of sea salt. YUM!

Caprese Salad:

1 tomato sliced to desired thickness
basil leaves for each tomato slice
pignoli ricotta (recipe to follow)

2 cups raw pine nuts, soaked for 1 hour of more
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (if you don't have this, it's not a recipe breaker)
1 tsp sea salt
6 Tbsp filtered water

Place the pine nuts, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times, until combined. Gradually add the water and process until the texture becomes fluffy, like ricotta.

To Serve:
Place tomato slices on plate, cover each slice with a basil leaf, add a dollop of pignoli ricotta, drizzle with olive oil and add a touch of freshly ground sea salt.

You can store the leftover ricotta in a sealed container in your refrigerator for up to a week.

(In the picture, I added a dollop of the pine nut pesto instead of the fresh basil leaves.)