Summer Corn Caprese Salad makes for a nice surprise and delicious way to entertain. This is a salad you serve with steak, a burger, grilled chicken, or take to a party. It can also be a great starter or a stand alone lunch. You can make this with fresh pesto or olive oil and fresh basil.

What is a Caprese Salad?

When we think of caprese salad, we think of fresh tomatoes with mozzarella, a bit of fresh basil and some form of vinaigrette. I usually only like olive oil, salt and pepper with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, but topping with fresh corn is a summer game changer. And, for a summer corn caprese salad, you don’t have to cook the corn, which adds sweetness and texture.

Ingredients for Corn Caprese Salad

Ripe Tomatoes (can be almost any kind as long as they are ripe, sweet, juicy)
Fresh mozzarella or burrata
Fresh basil (or pesto)
Extra virgin olive oil
Fresh Corn
Salt, Pepper

I like to think of caprese salad as a salad that celebrates the tomato and I love how this summer corn caprese salad brings in a bit of summer corn.

In this blog post I wrote about my own personal rules for caprese salad, but feel free to make your own rules.

Fresh tomatoes left sitting on counter, not refrigerated.
Fresh mozzarella, not the yellow rubbery stuff sealed in plastic or burrata!
Young, fruity extra virgin olive oil.
Fresh herbs, traditionally basil (although dry herbs are acceptable).
You can use freshly made pesto or pistou instead of olive oil and basil.
No onion. I think raw onion becomes completely overbearing in a caprese salad.
Salt, a must, which makes tomatoes come alive.

Pesto/Pistou Variations

The difference between pesto and pistou is basically the addition of nuts and cheese. A pistou is easy to make with just garlic, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. It comes together very easily. However, you can also add a full pesto to this salad. Or, just use olive oil with freshly cut basil. This is more of an idea for caprese than anything you have to follow exactly. I’ve even thought of doing with an addition of fresh peaches along with the tomatoes.

I have several pesto recipes here at spinach tiger. This is my classic recipe, but I’ve been replacing the pine nuts with roasted, salted macadamia nuts (about 1/3 cup). You can also use pistachio nuts as I did in this recipe. You can replace the basil with fresh mint as I did here.

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