31 January 2010

TOMATO SALAD WITH LEMON AND BASIL

This salad is a summer tomato celebration. Find as many varieties and sizes of tomatoes as you can for this salad. It’s dressed with lemon zest, basil and olive oil, but not with vinegar or lemon juice as tomatoes have plenty of natural acidity. Adding more will only make the juices run and will give a sharp taste to the finished dish. Accompany with a fruity Riesling.

• 2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced horizontally
• handful of red, orange or yellow cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 3-4 crimson-pink acid free tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 3-4 Roma tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 3-4 medium ripe salad tomatoes, sliced
• 1 small red onion, sliced paper thin zest of 1 lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper pinch of sugar
• 4 tablespoons light but fruity extra virgin olive oil
• handful of basil leaves

Wash and dry the tomatoes, then cut as suggested above. Lay them on a large flat arranged so that they’re not piled up on top of each other and become ‘clammy’ (in English foodwriter Jane Grigson’s words.) Sprinkle the sliced red onion and lemon zest over the tomatoes and season with plenty of salt and pepper and a little sugar. Finally drizzle over the olive oil and scatter over finely sliced basil leaves. Serves 8. Recipe by Lauraine Jacobs