This caprese asparagus salad combines the second half of asparagus season with the beginning of tomato season in early summer. While caprese salads traditionally use fresh, uncooked slicing tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, this recipe roasts them.
After cooking in the oven, add fresh basil and drizzle the salad with balsamic vinegar. From prepping the ingredients to roasting, it's ready to eat in 15-20 minutes.
The recipe calls for 1 pound of asparagus, which is about 15-20 spears, depending on the size. It can serve four people, with about 4-5 spears each, or two people with 7-10 spears each.
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Recipe

Ingredients
- 1 lb asparagus usually 1 bundle
- 8 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
- 2 teaspoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 fresh basil leaves
- balsamic vinegar
Instructions
Prepare salad ingredients
- Preheat oven to 425℉. Cut dry ends off asparagus. Cut tomatoes in half. Cut basil into ribbons. Tear mozzarella into small pieces.1 lb asparagus, 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, 2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, 8 fresh basil leaves
Roast at 425℉ for 5-10 minutes
- Place asparagus in the center of a baking sheet with tomatoes on the side. Toss both with olive oil and salt, keeping them separated. Group the asparagus close together and top with mozzarella cheese (so cheese melts onto asparagus, not onto the pan).2 teaspoon olive oil, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Roast for 5-10 minutes, until the asparagus is fork-tender. It will bend slightly if lifted off the pan, but still be sturdy enough that you could probably snap it.
Finish the salad & serve
- Use a spatula to move the asparagus to your serving platter. Top with basil, then with tomatoes. Basil doesn't hold up to roasting so it's added later, and sandwiching it between the hot asparagus and tomatoes softens it up and releases some aromas.Drizzle with a good, syrupy balsamic vinegar.balsamic vinegar
Notes
- Large spears cook in 8-10 minutes, small spears are done in 4-6
- Purple asparagus will lose most (or all) of the purple color after roasting, turning green
Nutrition

Using fresh asparagus
When asparagus is in season, it has a great texture and flavor. I like using larger spears for roasting in this Caprese asparagus salad. They take just a few minutes longer to cook, giving the tomatoes more time to roast and soften too.
Selecting the best asparagus
Look for asparagus spears that are rigid and not at all limp. Ideally the ends aren't dried out at all, but that's really hard to find by the time they get to the store or sometimes even the farmers market.
The fresher the asparagus, the better it tastes and the better its texture. After harvest, the sugars start converting into lignin, a compound that causes the spears to be woody or stringy. This continues throughout storage, which is why asparagus is best eaten fresh.
You can check to see if the asparagus is woody or stringy by eating a small piece raw. (Don't eat the dry end, eat a piece from the middle). If it seems fibrous, you can peel the skin off, which is where most of the woodiness comes from.

Storing & trimming asparagus
The best way to store asparagus is in a jar with an inch of water, in the fridge. This helps keep the spears from drying out and maintains their crisp texture longer.
When you trim the dry ends off, don't snap them. It's actually a myth that's been debunked - the asparagus will snap where the most pressure is applied, not where the woodiness ends.
Instead, cut an inch (or less) off the bottom. If the bottoms look moist and fresh, they are ready to use. If they still look dry, cut off a little more.


Green vs purple asparagus
Purple asparagus is usually larger and sweeter than green asparagus. It just has to do with the genetics of the plant. I've been really happy with the purple asparagus growing in my garden.
The purple color is only on the outside. The center is still bright, grassy green. As it cooks, purple asparagus loses its color and turns green. So you only want to roast purple spears for this caprese asparagus salad if you just like its taste or texture better.
If you want some more color, you could use purple basil. You won't find it at the grocery store, but you might luck out at a farmers market or you can grow it yourself. Toss some fresh cut strips on top of the tomatoes for that added pop of color.

Cherry tomatoes
I like roasting asparagus with tomatoes because their acidity livens up the vegetable flavor of asparagus. For this caprese salad, the acidity also complements the cheese, balancing out the fat with acid.
I suggest using cherry tomatoes for this salad for several reasons. First, the smaller tomatoes are in season toward the second half of asparagus season. Larger beefsteak type tomatoes, which are used in traditional caprese salads, take longer to ripen and show up later in summer.
Second, cherry tomatoes are typically sweeter and more flavorful. When roasted, some nuanced tomato flavors are cooked off, but the brighter, sweeter flavors of cherry tomatoes make up for this.
Lastly, beefsteak and slicing tomatoes can fall apart when roasted, whereas halved cherry tomatoes easily hold their shape in the high heat.


Roasting the asparagus salad
Roasting the asparagus salad at high heat browns the spears, softens the tomatoes, and melts the mozzarella cheese with enough heat to get some bubbly brown spots.
The asparagus and tomatoes are arranged on the baking tray for a specific purpose: to melt the mozzarella cheese so it's gooey, bubbly, and browned in some spots. If the tomatoes were stacked on top of the asparagus during cooking, the cheese wouldn't melt as well.
If the spears have to cook longer to turn tender, the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese will be fine. The tomatoes won't burn and the cheese will just get more bubbly and brown (like on a pizza).

How do you know when the asparagus is done cooking?
This caprese asparagus salad is done cooking when the asparagus is tender. The tomatoes will be delicious at any stage of roasting, so you don't have to worry about their cooking time like you do with the asparagus.
When perfectly done, asparagus spears will bend slightly when lifted up, but still be firm enough that you could snap them (or come close to it). A fork will piece through them, but you should still have a little resistance - it shouldn't feel mushy.
Overcooked asparagus will be extremely limp and mushy. Think of perfectly cooked green beans compared to overcooked mushy ones.

More asparagus recipes & resources
If you enjoy asparagus salads, try one of these recipes from other food bloggers.
- Asparagus, tomato, and feta salad with balsamic vinaigrette (blanched asparagus) - recipe by Cooking Classy
- A chopped asparagus Italian salad (blanched asparagus) from The View from Great Island.
- Raw asparagus salad with walnuts & Parmesan from Alexandra's Kitchen
- And for a pretty similar caprese asparagus salad, try the one from Lisa's Healthy Kitchen. She still roasts the asparagus, but the other ingredients are fresh (and the cheese is not melted).
Asparagus can be eaten raw, or cooked pretty much any way you want... roasted, grilled, steamed, boiled... Learn how to cook asparagus with 50 recipes across 10 cooking methods.
If you're wondering what else is currently in season, check out my calendars to see what produce is in season each month (and coming up soon).
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