Recipe: Heirloom Tomato Salad
Miriam Rubin educates us on heirloom tomatoes, and the simplest (and best) way to enjoy them.
Tomato season, to me, is the most wonderful time of the year. After all, I wrote an entire book about this favorite vegetable (fruit).
In my garden I’ve planted a mixture of mostly heirloom tomatoes, different colors, sizes and shapes. Small ones include bright tangerine Sungold cherries and the more sedate, but equally prolific red baby plums, called Juliet. There are curvy Brandywines and a rounded pinkish one named Martha Washington that’s sweet and pleasingly early. There’s the meaty, ovoid Amish Paste that beats those ubiquitous Romas any day for taste and grow-ability, and a yellow one, as bright as a yield sign, called Nebraska Wedding. I’m also growing Druzba, started by seed and June Pink, which doesn’t seem to like it much here. I have hope. They could ripen.
Cherokee Purple is this year’s taste winner. They’re not as big and show-offy like the Brandywines are this summer — usually my flavor favorite. Instead, the less productive purple-red Cherokees have a more concentrated, richer flavor. Or maybe because there are fewer, I appreciate them more?
Of course everyone doesn’t have a garden and everyone doesn’t grow tomatoes, but you’re probably getting a bounty in your CSA basket. If not, your local farmer will gladly provide. So no excuses, tis the season to adore them.
Plus it’s enriching to taste different tomatoes, to see what their characteristics are, as they’re not all the same. Some are very sweet, some have a balance of acid and sweet, some have a deeper, more robust flavor. Some may disappoint, but this is how to find your favorites.
People wonder what I do with all my tomatoes. I give some to friends. There’s the sauce I freeze for winter meals. I can tomato puree, I simmer up jam, craft individual tomato tarts and bake a mean tomato casserole. But this salad is what I crave first with the big heirlooms, after I’ve had a few drippy stand-over-the-kitchen-sink tomato sandwiches.
You can get fancier later but in high tomato season, the best way to devour them is without too much adornment, with a dollop of fruity olive oil and a bit of lemon juice and/or vinegar and a generous hand with the salt. That’s the whole point. Simplicity lets the tomatoes shine.
Heirloom Tomato Salad
Makes 4 servings
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup halved and thinly sliced sweet red or white onion
1 pound large heirloom tomatoes, such as Brandywine, halved, cored and cut into thin wedges
½ pound medium purple, black, green or yellow tomatoes, halved, cored and cut into wedges
1 cup Sungold cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons slivered fresh basil, plus a few small basil leaves to sprinkle over salad
1. In a small bowl, with a fork, mix the oil, lemon juice and vinegar. Season to taste with salt. Add the onion and let marinate 10 to 15 minutes.
2. In a large, shallow serving bowl or deep plate, arrange all the tomatoes. Season to taste with salt. Spoon the marinated onion and the dressing over all. Sprinkle with the basil. Let stand a few minutes for the flavors to blend before serving. Toss gently, if you wish. Taste, adding more salt, lemon juice or vinegar, if desired, and serve.
