Recipe for Tomato, Olive, and Fresh Mozzarella Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

All the flavors of summer in this Tomato, Olive, and Fresh Mozzarella Salad with Basil Vinaigrette

For Phase One Fridays I highlight Phase One recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  I make this salad every summer, as soon as Costco starts carrying the fresh mozzarella pearls and I have fresh basil in the garden!)

This is the perfect salad to make when it's fresh tomato season and your garden is bursting with tomatoes and fresh basil. However it can also have mood-enhancing properties if it's a very rainy first week of summer where you live, even if you have to buy tomatoes from Costco and it takes every basil leaf you can manage to snip from your puny plants. I have to confess though, it was the adorable mozzarella pearls made by Bel Gioisio Cheese I found at Costco that really inspired this salad. If you're not familiar with fresh mozzarella, it's a very soft cheese that comes packed in brine. The "pearls" are tiny pieces about the size of marbles, and they were delicious with the tomatoes and fresh basil.

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