If you love big salads with tons of delicious and healthy ingredients you will love this Capricciosa salad. Just some basic chopping skills and you’re all set.
This capricciosa salad is the best one you will try. It’s intended to be an “everything and the kitchen sink” big salad or simply everything you have in the fridge.
There are many varieties of insalata capricciosa since the intent is to make it with whatever you have but this one is special to my heart.
My dad used to work in an Italian restaurant and learned this particular version from his Italian colleagues.
Now that I think about it, this is likely where my love of Italian food comes from.
Since my dad always made capricciosa salad this particular way, I feel like this is the only real version.
Preparing Insalata Capricciosa
Ingredients
Produce
Iceberg lettuce: Iceberg lettuce is also known as crisphead lettuce. It comes in what is called a head. It is typically a vibrant green colour and although the outer leaves can be quite soft, the inside is much more crisp.
Tomato: Tomatoes are actually a fruit, despite most people believing them to be vegetables. Roma tomatoes are plum tomatoes and are commonly used for making sauces and for canning because they don’t have many seeds. They have an elongated shape and are a deep read when fully ripe.
Onion: Onion is a very common vegetable that is used both raw and cooked in food preparation. It has a sharp flavour raw that often sweetens once cooked. There are many varieties of onions, some that are milder than others. We use the common onion or yellow onion in this recipe.
Red bell pepper: The sweetness of red bell pepper is unbeatable in this recipe. Red peppers are the more mature version of the more bitter and earthy green pepper. Though they are technically a fruit, bell peppers are typically used as a vegetable in cooking. Red bell peppers are high in vitamins C and A.
Cucumber: Cucumbers are the fruit of a creeping vine plant. They are often grown on trellises, in cool climates in greenhouses and as a field crop in warmer areas. There are many different varieties of cucumbers, with the smaller varieties most often used for pickling. Hence the name pickling cucumber.
Basil: Basil, also called sweet basil, is an annual herb that is grown for its fragrant leaves. It is part of the mint family and is native to Asia. It is used in cooking all over the world for its slightly sweet and very distinct flavour.
Protein
Havarti cheese: Havarti cheese is a semi-hard cheese made of cow’s milk. It’s almost creamy in texture despite looking like hard cheese. It has a mild but distinct flavour, a soft yellow-cream colour and small eyes throughout.
Tuna: Tuna is a large fish that lives in saltwater with over 15 species in existence. There are two main kinds of tuna that are most commonly found in grocery stores in North America, white tuna and light tuna
Egg: Eggs are laid by many different animals but chicken eggs are what we use in this recipe. Eggs provide protein, fat and many other nutrients and therefore are a healthy part of our diet.
Cocktail shrimp: Shrimp are shellfish that have long bodies, skinny legs and a shell all around their bodies. They are swimmers and can be found in both fresh and salt water. We use cocktail shrimp for this recipe.
Fats
Green olives: Green olives are unripe black olives that are simply picked early. They are soaked in lye before they are brined giving them their distinct flavour.
G&K Italian salad dressing: This salad dressing uses oil and mayonnaise as the base and incorporates dry herbs.
How to Make Capricciosa Salad
It may seem like a lot of ingredients and though that is true – it took me 5 minutes just to gather everything – it whips up quickly and it’s so worth it.
Remember that none of the ingredients are required so play around with what you have handy.
If you don’t have any of our Italian salad dressing on hand make it now:
Step 1: Cook the Egg
First, you want to cook the egg to give it time to cool before you add it to the salad.
Fill a small pot with water and set to boil. Once it’s boiling gently lower the egg into the pot using a spoon and cook for 8 minutes.
Just before the 8 minutes is up, fill a small bowl with cold water. When the timer goes off, using a spoon remove the egg from the pot and place it into the cold water to stop the cooking process. If you add ice to the water this will work even better!
Step 2: Prep the lettuce
Next, we need to get the lettuce ready. We need a quarter of a head for 1 person so go ahead and cut your lettuce in half. Then cut the half in half once more. Then it’s ready to be torn into pieces or roughly chopped.
Move the chopped lettuce into a container with cold water. If my sink is empty I half-fill it with water otherwise I just use my salad spinner.
Let the iceberg lettuce soak for a couple of minutes to let any dirt settle. Next, pat or spin it dry.
Place it in a serving bowl. This is the base for the capricciosa salad.
Step 3: Chop the veggies
Now you need to gather all of your fresh veggies. Wash and dice the tomato, cucumber and red bell pepper. I like to keep the veggies in relatively small pieces but big enough to really taste them in each bite.
Make the size that you like best to make sure the salad is made to your preference as much as possible.
Next, peel and dice the onion. I prefer it to be thinly sliced then roughly chopped. You can use red onion or sweet/Spanish onion if the yellow onion is too sharp.
Step 4: Add Protein
You can’t have a filling salad without some protein. In this capricciosa salad, we add multiple different protein elements.
Start with the cheese and ham stacks. Place a slice of cheese on a cutting board, then place a slice of ham on top. Followed by a cheese slice and so on. Cut the stack into ½-inch wide pieces by cutting the stack in half in one direction, then cutting ½-inch wide strips.
You can trim off the edges first to turn the stack into a perfect square or rectangle, depending on the shape of your cheese and ham.
Now open and drain the can of tuna. Next, remove the tails from the shrimp. And peel and roughly chop the egg.
Add all the protein to your salad.
Step 5: Time for healthy fats
Finally, it’s time to add the final touches. Drain the olives and add them to the salad with the dressing.
You can make it now if you don’t have any dressing on hand. Although it will be tastier if it sits for a bit, making it ahead is recommended.
Substitutions
G&K Italian salad dressing: You can use any dressing that you like. Traditionally capricciosa salad is served with a mayonnaise-based dressing but I do think a nice vinaigrette would also be a great choice.
The rest of the ingredients are all interchangeable. You can leave out things you don’t like or don’t have on hand, or add others that are your favourites. Try adding some artichokes, capers and mushrooms.
Serving Capricciosa Salad
Most often I make this salad in individual salad bowls or technically pasta bowls. Mainly because I am the only one in my house that eats it. But this also ensures that everyone gets their own pretty salad.
If you are hosting, however, make this capriccioso salad recipe for 4 people and serve it in a shallow tray-like dish and it will impress all of your guests. Imagine a giant beautiful and colourful salad for everyone to serve themselves. It will serve more than just 4 people if it is one of many dishes and it provides a healthy and filling option for your guests.
Whatever dish you serve it in, I highly recommend you sprinkle the finished product with freshly julienned basil. It adds the perfect fragrance and freshness to this already delicious capricciosa salad.
Let us know in the comments if you have any other questions. And if you like this recipe be sure to leave us a five-star rating below.
Are you looking for dinner ideas? Check out our recipes:
Capricciosa Salad Recipe
Equipment
- Small pot
- small bowl
- Knife and cutting board
- Salad bowl
Ingredients
- ¼ head of Iceberg lettuce
- 2.5 oz Roma tomato (one tomato)
- 1 oz onion (3 tbsp)
- 2 slices black forest ham
- 3 slices Havarti cheese
- 2 oz red bell pepper (1/4 pepper)
- 2.5 oz English cucumber
- ½ can tuna (white in water)
- 1 egg
- 6 cocktail shrimp
- 8 whole green olives
- 2 tbsp G&K Italian salad dressing and Sub Sauce
- 3 leaves fresh basil (for garnish)
Instructions
- Start by adding some water to a small pot and setting it to boil. Once the water is boiling add the egg to the pot and cook it for 8 minutes. Once cooked, move the egg to a bowl with cold water to stop the cooking process.1 egg
- Next, take a quarter of a head of iceberg lettuce and tear it or roughly chop it. Wash and dry it and move it to a salad bowl.¼ head of Iceberg lettuce
- Now prep your fresh veggies. Wash and dice the tomato and bell pepper, and slice the cucumber and onion.2.5 oz Roma tomato, 1 oz onion, 2 oz red bell pepper, 2.5 oz English cucumber
- Add the veggies to the salad bowl spreading them all evenly on top.
- Open and drain a can of tuna and add it to the bowl.½ can tuna
- Remove the tails from the shrimp and add them to your salad.6 cocktail shrimp
- Stack the cheese and ham slices on top of each other, starting and finishing with a cheese slice. Cut the stack in half in one direction, then cut ½-inch wide wedges in the other. Add them to the bowl as well.2 slices black forest ham, 3 slices Havarti cheese
- Roughly chop the egg and add it to the salad.
- Lastly, add the olives on top.8 whole green olives
- Drizzle with the dressing and, if desired, garnish with julienned fresh basil.2 tbsp G&K Italian salad dressing and Sub Sauce, 3 leaves fresh basil
