These Italian Sausage Caprese Burgers are a delightful and surprisingly addicting combination of two iconic summer meals.
I had a plan going into this month of Cookout Themed dishes. The plan was to have everything made well in advance. The plan was to be organized. Prepared. Ahead of schedule.
For the first few weeks, this worked. I had my cookout side dishes and main dishes made and photographed with time to spare and felt like a total superstar after managing to post five times each week.
Then week three hit. And I started working full time again. And I decided to bake 250 cookies to sell at a garage sale. And the plan turned into “take pictures at 7:45 as the last usable light slips away, stay up until midnight editing photos, and crank out a post the night before somewhere between removing cookies to a cooling rack and scooping out another tray of dough.”
Prior to last week, I had only made one of the burgers you see mentioned here this week. Which means that last week, we ate a whole lotta burgers. I ate burgers for lunch, for dinner, for snacks. I ate them on salad greens, on a bun, on toasted bread, in a pita. There were burgers everywhere.
You’d think I would never want to see a burger again. Never ever ever.
But today I ate the last of these Italian Sausage Caprese Burgers as a leftover at work, and I was honestly a little sad to see them go.
You see, we weren’t just stuffing our faces with the classic burger every day. Amazing as they are, I would get tired of that. But we actually had a really nice mix of the classic burger, the spicy buffalo chicken burger, a veggie burger (my arteries are thanking me for those!), and these simply dressed Caprese Burgers.
All of the burgers from the week were different enough that I didn’t hate eating a burger every night for dinner. In fact, it was really fun to see what kinds of combinations and flavors we could tease out of the humble burger.
I totally did not expect to love this combination as much as I did, which is somewhat ridiculous because I adore anything that includes fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese.
But I thought the burger might overshadow the delicate flavors of the basil or the sweet balsamic glaze might make the whole thing super weird and inedible.
In the end, none of that was true. The burgers turned out perfect. The Italian sausage gave the burgers tons of flavor, but didn’t overwhelm the mild flavor of the mozzarella or the basil. Of course, these are caprese burgers so they had to have a big, thick slice of juicy tomato. The whole thing is pulled together by a sweet, tangy balsamic glaze. It’s a delightful and surprisingly addicting combination of two iconic summer meals.
For these, I recommend ditching the bun and choosing thick slices of Italian bread instead. I brushed mine with olive oil then baked them in the oven until browned and crispy. They held their own against the juicy burger, and added a nice texture reminiscent of crostini.
This really is a stunning burger, and thankfully its taste lived up to its good looks.
Lord knows I couldn’t have eaten one more burger.
Italian Sausage Caprese Burgers
Ingredients
For the burgers:
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 lb. Italian sausage
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
For serving:
- 5 thick slices fresh mozzarella cheese
- 1 bunch basil (you'll want a couple leaves for each burger)
- 5 thick slices of tomato
- Balsamic Glaze (you can buy it at the store or make your own using url href= "https://neighborfoodblog.com/2011/08/pesto-tomato-crostini-with-balsamic.html"] this recipe [/url)
For the bread:
- 10 thick slices French or Italian bread
- 1/4-1/3 cup olive oil
I made this for a lab cookout two weeks ago- everyone raved about it! My boyfriend practically tried to drink the balsamic glaze. I notice you’re in German village, and I got a little excited to see someone blogging from the local food scene (I’m located Grandview). Thanks- keep it up!
Isn’t that glaze amazing? I put it on pretty much everything in the summer. Yay for Columbus friends! I always get excited when a reader is from around here. Thanks for coming back to comment!
Amazing! I could have this for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
This gives me an idea…add an egg perhaps?