I Tried Ina Garten’s and Ree Drummond’s Caprese Salad—This Is the One I’m Making From Now On

When summer is at its most sweltering, I believe strongly that less is more—less time at my desk, less clothing to stick to, and less fussing around in the kitchen. For those long, sweaty days, I need recipes that keep me feeling cool and refreshed, that come together quickly, and that satisfy my whole family.

For that reason, Caprese salads feature prominently on our summer meal plan. I'm fortunate that both kids happen to like tomatoes and mozzarella in nearly every combination, especially when drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a flurry of torn basil. So, I thought it would be fun to compare two versions of the classic Italian salad to see which one would claim Caprese supremacy.

I tried Ina Garten's Roasted Tomato Caprese and Ree Drummond's Classic Caprese Salad, and here's how it went.

Ina Garten’s Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

Ina Garten built her reputation on beachy, breezy dishes like the ones she served at her Hamptons-based food shop, The Barefoot Contessa, so I was eager to see how her Caprese salad would stack up. 

The recipe list doesn’t deviate much from the traditional Caprese—tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. But what sets Ina’s recipe apart is the technique. 

Rather than plating fat slices of peak summer tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, Ina uses halved Roma tomatoes that have been tossed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar and then roasted in the oven at a low temperature for two hours to amplify the natural sweetness of the tomatoes.

Roasting tomatoes for two hours during the blistering hot days of July (I’m currently writing this during a national heat wave) is not my idea of a good time. The wonderful thing about tomatoes is that you don’t have to do much to them to get them. That’s the whole idea of the Caprese salad. 

Then it dawned on me: This isn’t a Caprese salad for summer; it’s a Caprese salad for literally any other season, with the best tomatoes available only from late June through September, leaving eight months of the year in which Ina's roasted tomato Caprese makes perfect sense.

Ree Drummond’s Caprese Salad

When Ree Drummond says she's making a "classic" Caprese, you can believe that it will be so classic that it's the Platonic ideal of a Caprese salad. 

Sweet, juicy tomatoes; fresh, bouncy mozzarella; whole leaves of basil; and a simple drizzle of olive oil and balsamic reduction. It's the kind of Caprese salad your brain conjured up when you clicked on this article—timeless, simple, perfect.

Ree's only real change to the basic formula is to include balsamic reduction. She provides instructions for making the reduction by simmering balsamic vinegar over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, but that's another hard pass for me. 

Rather than making my summer kitchen smell like hot vinegar, I'll opt for a store-bought balsamic glaze or a splash of balsamic vinegar for the bright, tangy contrast it provides. Otherwise, I'm entirely on board with Ree's Caprese.

The Winner: Ree Drummond’s Caprese Salad

When it comes to the kind of easy, satisfying Caprese salad I crave all summer long, Ree Drummond's Classic Caprese Salad is the clear winner. The recipe calls for three big tomatoes and 12 ounces of fresh mozzarella, which makes enough for approximately six servings as a side dish or four servings as the center of the meal. 

That said, I look forward to making Ina Garten's Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad when a Caprese craving strikes in, say, February. 

These days, I'm impressed with the sweet, on-the-vine tomatoes I can find at the grocery store. They don't hold a candle to summer's harvest, but when roasted with a bit of love, they can be pretty satisfying too.