Caprese Pesto Mini Kabobs

I made these as one of the appetizers for the family dinner the other evening. I had seen recipes for Caprese Kabobs pop up on a few different blogs recently. I then saw the addition of pesto and the use of toothpicks vs. kabobs and decided that would be the route I would take. I did not jot down the name of the blog I saw these on so I really apologize for not giving credit where credit is due. The original recipe used pine nuts and more oil and since I have a recipe tweaking sickness I tweaked. I am not a fan of pine nuts so I substituted with walnuts and per personal preference reduced the amount of oil. These went super fast! We had four adults so I used 20 tomatoes. I just did not want to end up with too much that would not get eaten. The flavor of the basil and the cheese comes through wonderfully in the pesto and since I used heirloom tomatoes they added different flavors. Careful, these are addictive!

Caprese Pesto Mini Kabobs

1 pint of tomatoes (I get the mix I used at Trader Joe's; you can always use grape or cherry tomatoes)
Mozzarella balls (I purchased a small container of the balls and then cut the balls into fours)
A bunch of basil (Used my Cuisinart Mini Chopper and filled it. All depends upon how much you want to make)
A healthy handful of walnuts

A clove or two of garlic
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (I used shredded as that is what I had)
about a 1/2 cup olive oil

Remove stems from basil and add basil, walnuts, and cheese to chopper/food processor. Chop until paste like. Slowly start to add oil and continue to mix/grind/chop or whatever your machine says! The amount of oil added is really a personal preference. I like my pesto a little thicker so went a little lighter on the oil and used about a little under a 1/2 cup.

Add tomatoes and mozzarella cheese to a large bowl. Add desired amount of pesto and mix. Take a toothpick and add a tomatoe and piece of cheese to each toothpick and lay out on a plate. Watch them go fast!

I ended up with a fair amount of pesto leftover. I had lots of tomatoes so the next day I took a handful of tomatoes, some mozzarella, added some pesto, mixed together and ate as a tomato salad vs making mini kabobs. Pesto has such basic ingredients, but packs so much incredible flavor!