This breading preparation owes the adjective caprese in its name to the presence of tomato and parsley, to which are added turmeric and paprika, ingredients now at home in our cuisine which add a pinch of exoticism and spiciness.
What is gratin
The gratin (or to put it in Italian, the gratin) is essentially a cooking technique whose aim is to obtain a tasty surface on a food, preventing it from drying out inside . To obtain this result, breadcrumbs or flour are usually used. Breading or breading a food instead means covering it completely with breadcrumbs, the result will be a crunchy crust not very different from that which covers the surface of gratinated dishes. The point is that in the kitchen in all cases in which we have a brown and crunchy crust that covers or encloses a very different heart in consistency and humidity we are exploiting a series of chemical processes, which see the proteins react with the sugars. Now perhaps it will be clear to you why when you make a vegetable gratin you add cheese in addition to the breadcrumbs, while in the case of meat and fish it is not absolutely necessary, breadcrumbs (or flour) provide the sugars, carbohydrates are complex sugars, upon reaction, the cheese adds proteins that are already present in meat and fish but not in vegetables.
Where to use the Caprese gratin breading
As usual, the limit is only your imagination regarding which dishes you could use this Caprese breading on, but we can give some suggestions, the delicious Caprese meatballs could benefit from a breading that instead of just breadcrumbs, use this breading flavored with tomato, parsley, turmeric and paprika.
We will not give the entire recipe but for those who don't know, Caprese meatballs are small tomatoes divided in two and hollowed out inside into which a little mozzarella is inserted, closed, breaded and fried. One of the most popular au gratin vegetable dishes are au gratin tomatoes, in this case the breading for the gratin usually consists only of breadcrumbs with oregano and basil, the Caprese breading could be a suitable alternative for those who love a touch of spiciness. Apart from gratin tomatoes, there are many other gratin dishes made up of tomatoes and other ingredients. Among the recipes found online, the one for tomatoes filled with mackerel creamed in the gratin caught our attention. On the flavor of a fish gratin, a preparation for breading flavored as well as with tomato with turmeric and paprika it would seem like an interesting variation.
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