Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Heirloom Tomato Salad - 1st course de luxe


Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes....it's finally the season to enjoy une tomate vrai (a REAL tomato). I love tomatoes. You love tomatoes. We all love tomatoes, don't we? Well, most people do anyway - I'm highly suspicious of people who say they don't like tomatoes, generally speaking...I mean, what's not to love? I think that the real problem with people who don't "like" tomatoes is that they've never really tasted a home-grown fresh-from-the-garden, drip-all-over-your-mouth-when-you-bite-into- it, kind of tomato!

So, tonight when I was preparing dinner, it was a great pleasure to honor our table with les tomates d'éte (the summer tomatoes). Real tomatoes. You know they are real when you can easily peel the skin off with a knife. And that's the preferred way to eat them, according to my dad. I quite agree.

Heirloom varieties I found in Paris: Ananas (yellow) , Noire de Crimée (dark), Sicilienne (red)

This salad is as simple as it gets. Find a great tomato from your local farmer's market, garden, or neighbor. Make sure it's not been refrigerated since that'll ruin a tomato (my opinion). Peel. Then, slice. In any sense you like (horizontal, vertical, in quarters....). Drizzle a high quality, fresh olive oil on top. Sprinkle with fleur de sel & piment d'espelette (or smoked papkrika). Add some basil, and buffalo mozzarella cheese if you want to die & go straight to heaven.


The rest is all in the tasting. Enjoy the explosion of taste in your mouth. (This is what summer tastes like!) I suggest that you have a good loaf of bread next to you...so that you can mop up all of the tomato juices that will end up on your plate! But if not, I think it's quite OK to drink the juice....it's certainly OK by me.

It comes around only once a year....summer that is, along with all of its fresh tomatos. Enjoy it while you can! Every day, if possible.


Heirloom Tomato Salad on Foodista

/dma

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You're right, it is a simple salad, but it sure looks good though! Looks fresh and flavorful. Hope you don't mind but I'd love to direct Foodista readers to your blog. Just add your choice of widget to this post and you're all set!

girlcookinparis said...

Thanks for your comment, FoodTravelDiva. I added it!

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