5 min
20 Mins
4 Appetiser Bowls
Fingerfood or Side Dish
Introduction
Sweet-savory oven-roasted cherry tomatoes collapse into a jammy sauce under high heat, then mingle with bite-size mozzarella balls to echo a warm caprese.
A quick drizzle of Florale No 1 honey bloomed with CAMP CHILI in OLEA432 olive oil adds smoky heat and floral caramel, while fresh basil leaves cool the finish.
Ingredients
450 g cherry tomatoes, left whole
2 Tbsp OLEA432 extra-virgin olive oil, divided
200 g ciliegine (mini mozzarella balls), drained
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Honey-Chili Oil Finish
2 Tbsp Florale No 1 honey
1 Tbsp CAMP CHILI seasoning
4 Tbsp OLEA432 olive oil
¼ cup fresh basil leaves, torn just before serving
Directions
Roast the tomatoes
Pre-heat oven to 200 °C / 400 °F . Toss tomatoes with 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper on a small baking dish and roast 20 minutes , stirring once, until skins blister and juices pool.
Make the honey-chili oil
While tomatoes roast, gently warm 4 Tbsp olive oil in a small pan (just until fluid, not hot). Whisk in Florale No 1 honey and CAMP CHILI until dissolved. This blooms chili in warm honey-oil to deepen flavour without burning spices.
Combine & melt
Remove the dish from the oven; immediately add mozzarella balls, folding them among the hot tomatoes so they soften but hold shape
Finish
Pour the warm honey-chili oil evenly over the pan; tomatoes and cheese should sit in a shallow pool, as in confit-style recipes. Scatter torn basil on top and add an extra pinch of CAMP CHILI if you prefer more heat.
Serve
Serve warm with crusty bread to mop up the sweet-spicy juices.
Why It Works
Roasting cherry tomatoes at a relatively high 200 °C drives off excess water, blistering the skins while concentrating natural sugars into a jammy core, so every bite tastes sweeter and more tomato-forward.
Because extra-virgin olive oil remains chemically stable and forms fewer harmful polar compounds than most seed oils even at oven temperatures, OLEA432 can safely pool around the fruit, ready to capture their caramelised juices.
Florale No 1 honey then melts into that warm oil; its fructose balances tomato acidity while CAMP CHILI’s capsaicin diffuses evenly through the fat, giving controlled, back-of-the-throat warmth without harsh spice pockets.
Fat also dissolves capsaicin, so the heat feels round and lingering rather than sharp.
Mini mozzarella (ciliegine) is dropped in while the tomatoes are still steaming; the gentle residual heat softens the cheese to a custardy core without full melt, mimicking warm caprese salads that food writers recommend for maximal milky sweetness.
The dairy’s mild fat tempers both acidity and chili burn, yielding a balanced sweet-salty-spicy bite.
Fresh basil is torn in only at the end because its volatile phenolic compounds (particularly linalool and eugenol) flash off quickly under heat; adding it last preserves the herb’s cooling aroma and ties the dish back to the classic caprese flavour triangle of tomato, mozzarella and basil.
Finally, the generous honey-chili-olive-oil pool doubles as a dipping condiment. Bread dragged through it picks up tomato umami, floral honey notes, smoky CAMP CHILI and grassy EVOO.
Serving Suggestions:
Tapas bruschetta – spoon tomatoes and mozzarella onto toasted baguette slices for instant appetiser bites.
Five-ingredient pasta – toss the entire pan (oil and all) with 250 g cooked short pasta; finish with extra basil.
Brunch side – pair alongside soft-scrambled eggs; the chili honey mimics popular hot-honey breakfast pairings
