Caprese Sticks

Caprese (pronounced cuh-pray-say) is an Italian salad made of sliced buffalo mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and basil leaves drizzled with sea salt and olive oil.  These caprese sticks are the cutest of the cute little appetizer bites and the best part is, they look like you spent some time on them when you really didn't!  They are tasty too (that's the name of the game, right?!)  Enjoy!

Caprese Sticks (Shelly Redmond)

Toothpicks
21 cherry tomatoes
1 (8 oz.) block mozzarella cheese, cut into 21 even pieces
1 small bunch basil
1 t. balsamic vinegar
1 t. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Skewer a cherry tomato, a small piece of basil and a piece of mozzarella cheese on a toothpick and repeat until all of the tomatoes and cheese are gone.  Arrange neatly on a platter.  These can be prepared up to a day ahead to this point and stored on a platter in the fridge covered with plastic wrap.  When ready to serve, shake together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a container with a tight fitting lid.  Drizzle over the skewers just before serving.
  
7 servings (111 calories each serving) according to my calculator on loseit.com