Omelet Caprese

Omelet Caprese folds the classic Italian Insalata (salad) into a great breakfast or brunch dish! Highlighted by the standard fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, this version adds a couple of ingredients that tie it all together into an omelet you’ll crave in the summer.

I had my first salad Caprese years ago on a trip to the East Coast and instantly fell in love with it. Simple ingredients, prepared simply, spotlight each of its components: fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes; creamy, smooth fresh mozzarella; and floral, piney basil. Drizzled with fragrant, buttery EVOO, of course.

Our garden overwhelmed us with tomatoes a few years later, and I decided that maybe salad Caprese could translate to an omelet. My first try, with just the “classic” ingredients of tomato, basil and mozzarella, was underwhelming – and if you search on Caprese Omelet you’re likely to find dozens of recipes like that. I had other ideas.

Balancing the Flavors in a Caprese Omelet

I didn’t like the idea of adding a drizzle of balsamic vinegar like some restaurants do for their versions of salad Caprese. It just seems… weird? … to have an acidic component to an omelet.

So I came up with adding just a little bit of finely grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese, as well as a little bit of oniony flavor (usually fresh chives or garlic chives from my herb garden, or the green part from green onions). Now I had a winning omelet Caprese – the saltiness of the aged cheese and the savory flavor of the chives or green onions perfectly complement the other ingredients and bring it all together.

This is the first thing my food-critic-in-chief requests each year when our heirloom tomatoes ripen in the garden. Actually, it’s the first thing I want, too, so it’s a happy coincidence!

About the Ingredients for an Omelet Caprese

Because there are only a few ingredients, omelet Caprese depends on the freshest, best-quality produce you can find. Home-grown, vine-ripened tomatoes are what you need here since they’re the star of the show.

We grow mostly heirloom varieties, and our favorites for this omelet are the pink types. They’re slightly less acidic and often more complex in flavor than the red varieties. We’ve grown Cour di Bue, German Johnson, Mortgage Lifter (Halladay’s strain), and others; our all-time favorite is Hungarian Heart, which is now widely available as seed.

Fresh mozzarella, as opposed to the low-moisture, part-skim stuff you use on pizza, is a little on the pricey side but totally worth it in this recipe IMHO. It’s also creamier and meltier than the other kind. I typically find it in the deli section. This recipe calls for half of a four-ounce ball of fresh mozzarella (the pearls work too, as shown below), and I suggest freezing what you don’t use after opening the package. It tends to go off rather quickly in the fridge.

Basil is so easy to grow that I keep a couple of small pots of it growing on my kitchen windowsill most of the year for this and other recipes. And if chives aren’t in season, you can always use green onion tops without much difference in the flavor.

How to Make This Recipe

I can’t stress this enough: Omelet Caprese goes together very quickly, so you need to prep all of the filling ingredients before you even think of cracking the eggs! Mince the herbs, slice the fresh mozzarella, finely grate the Parmesan or Asiago (I use my mouli for this), and dice the tomato into 1/2-inch or smaller pieces.

When you’re almost done with the prep, start heating a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and add a teaspoon or two of cooking oil. When the oil starts to shimmer, break two eggs into a small bowl and whip them with a fork or whisk until fully mixed and a little foamy. You can also add a little milk, cream, or water if you wish.

Pour the eggs into the pan, and with a spatula immediately start pushing the eggs a couple of inches toward the center of the pan, lifting and tilting the pan to let the still-liquid egg flow into the space you’ve made with the spatula.

Repeat these motions two to three more times, at ten-or-so-second intervals, until no more liquid egg flows out.

Start building the omelet filling on one-half of the nearly set omelet. First, add the fresh mozzarella, then the diced tomato, followed by the herbs and finely grated Parmesan or Asiago. Fold the unfilled half of the omelet over the filling (it will be very full!) and press the top down with your spatula for just a second to help it hold together.

Carefully slide the finished omelet onto a serving plate. Repeat with the second omelet.

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