Caprese Omelet

Don’t gag! A recent breakfast at one of the local Omelet Houses had me thinking about doing something a little creative. If you’ve ever seen the Omelet House menu, you know that they have wild combinations of ingredients all enfolded by the humble egg.

Well after enjoying a Popeye omelet - without bacon - recently (my companion opted for an Eggs Benedict since the omelets looked a little intimidating!), I decided to get a little creative with some ingredients I had at hand.

We had enjoyed some Caprese a couple of days prior, and I decided to try my hand at a Caprese omelet. I had plenty of mozzarella left over, organic eggs from Trader Joe’s, fresh tomatoes, and basil that’s growing like weeds in my garden. What’s not to like?

I decided that since this was an experiment, I’d only use three eggs for starters. So here is the recipe with my usual exact list of ingredients:

3 Jumbo Eggs
¼ cup of Perlini mozzarella balls from Trader Joe’s (melts the best). You can vary this amount depending on how much you like the cheese.
Handful of basil, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, diced
Grapeseed oil
EVOO
Salt

Okay, here you go.

Break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork. Set aside. Drain the whey from the Perlinis.

Heat a small fry/sauté pan over medium heat and drizzle in some grapeseed oil. Grapeseed oil has a neutral flavor and a high smoke point, so it is ideal for this application. Make sure it coats the entire pan. I used a paper towel to spread the oil so that there was a light, shimmering layer.

Pour the eggs into the pan, stir lightly, and then add the Perlinis. As the Perlini balls start to melt, stir with a fork in order to encourage them to get a little stretchy. As they do, stir in the tomatoes, let them heat through, and then add the basil.

If you’re really good, you can fold this up so that it looks like a proper omelet. If you’re like me, then it’s not so pretty and would probably be sent back to the kitchen. But I digress.

Put this on a plate (pretty or not), drizzle with a little EVOO, and sprinkle with your choice of salt. I chose Australian Murray River Flake Salt because it’s not very salty, and the light, peach-colored flakes add a pop of flavor.

In a word, Yum. This was a nice breakfast take on a traditional Italian salad and was surprisingly quite tasty. The freshness of the tomatoes and the basil, and the unusual finishing touch of the olive oil made this dish truly enjoyable, and it disappeared quickly.

That’s the essence of cooking! Good, fresh ingredients and a well-developed sense of adventure. And at least one willing victim ready to be the guinea pig.

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