This is one of the simplest heart shaped appetizers for Valentine’s Day you will ever make, yet it looks so pretty! Thin slices of mozzarella and tomatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper and drizzled with olive oil.
There are so many heart-shaped food ideas on the Internet, some of them easy, while others complicated. I like to keep things simple, and I know many of you do too, so this year I had this simple heart-shaped appetizer idea.
It’s pretty, yet easy to make and requires literally a few ingredients only. It can be served on its own or as part of a Valentine’s Day dinner menu.
I decided not to use fresh basil, as I liked the plain look better, but you can serve it on side or tear/cut a few fresh leaves into small pieces and sprinkle it over these hearts.
By the way, this can be turned into easy party appetizers. If you’d like to learn more, I have a recipe for Caprese salad bites on my blog.
How to make heart shaped appetizer for Valentine’s Day
The whole process cannot be any simpler than this:
Drain the liquid from mini mozzarella balls and place them onto a few sheets of paper kitchen towel or napkins. Then, rinse cherry tomatoes under running water and pat them dry.
Slice the balls and tomatoes into thin slices.
Now, assemble these slices onto a plate creating a heart shape. When ready, drizzle the plate with olive oil and sprinkle salt and black pepper over.
Pro tips
- If you can, buy plum cherry tomatoes (the oval-shaped mini tomatoes)! You will get more slices out of one and they are easier to cut.
- Cut them thin, it will be easier to assemble them onto a plate nicely.
- Serve this with French, Italian or your favorite artisan bread. The juice from tomatoes and leftover oil together with seasoning make a simple but tasty bread dipping sauce.
- You can make these heart-shaped appetizers up to 2 hours ahead and keep them in the fridge and finish both off with oil and seasoning right before serving. Or, you can keep the sliced ingredients in an air-tight container and assemble these easy Valentine’s Day appetizers right before serving.
- If you are looking for some unique ideas how to surprise your loved ones on this special day, in this Valentine’s Day DIY gift ideas post you will find some great ideas.
More easy appetizer recipes for Valentine’s Day:
If you are looking for easy sweet recipes that are perfect for this occasion, here are some ideas:
Valentine’s Day puff pastry hearts are very easy, even though they don’t look it. All you have to do is bake puff pastry, fill it and decorate. But, if you are looking for sweets that can be made well ahead, then chocolate-covered orange peels are a great choice.
Heart Shaped Appetizers
Ingredients
- 16 mini mozzarella balls (bocconcini, see note 1 & 7)
- 10 plum cherry tomatoes (see note 2 & 7)
- olive oil (see note 3)
- salt (to taste)
- black pepper (to taste, see note 4)
Instructions
- Drain the liquid from the mozzarella balls and place them onto paper kitchen towels. Rinse the cherry tomatoes and pat them dry. Cut these into thin slices. Arrange them on a plate in the shape of a heart.
- Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Notes
- For this recipe = 2 portions, I used 1 package of mini mozzarella balls with a total weight of 10 ounces/285 grams (this included the liquid as well). I had a few leftovers.
- You can use round cherry tomatoes instead of plum cherry tomatoes (oval-shaped ones), but you will need to buy more as you will end up with more cut-offs than the usable pieces.
- Olive oil – this is a simple appetizer, so I recommend using a good-quality oil. My preference is extra virgin olive oil.
- You can use either ground black pepper or freshly cracked pepper.
- You can serve these with a side of French, Italian or any artisan bread you like. Just dip the bread into the leftover oil, if you like.
- This is a quick appetizer and I always recommend making it right before serving, but if you want, you can make it up to 2 hours ahead. Please see the full post above this recipe card for detailed tips and more information, if in doubt.
- I used 10 plum cherry tomatoes and 16 mini mozzarella balls for 2 appetizers. Note that the quantity you will need might be different. This will depend on how many slices you get out of one tomato and mozzarella and also on how large your hearts will be. Also, the nutritional values will be lower than what the table shows as it does not count with the fact, that you will have a lot of cut-offs.
Leave a Reply