Posted August 5, 2011
-Dads Tomato Salad
Be prepared this summer when homegrown and locally grown tomatoes start to arrive.
Siblings Spiro and Adrienne Pappadopoulos, the owners of Evenfall Restaurant, 8 Knipe Road in Haverhill, MA learned this recipe from their father who grew all of the ingredients in his own garden. The base ingredients are tomatoes, Vidalia onions, fresh grown mint, oregano and olive oil. The fresh mint gives the salad an overall freshness. You can easily alter the recipe to suit whatever amount you want to make. Here is how to make a single serving.
Evenfall chef Victoria Bucknam shows how simple it is to prepare this delicious tomato salad in the accompanying video. She uses about 10 grape tomatoes but you can use whatever tomatoes you have, as long as you cut them to bite-sized pieces. Dice the onion very small and use according to your taste.
The mint in this recipe is chiffonaded. Chiffonade is a cooking technique in which herbs or other leafy greens are cut into long, thin strips, making fine ribbon-like pieces, to avoid bruising them.
Another tip is to just use enough oil to bring out the other flavors.
You can eat this salad as is or another idea is to use it to top off an arugula or other salad. Because of its flavor you will not have to use any other vinaigrette or dressing.
Dad’s Tomato Salad
Ingredients:
10 grape tomatoes, or other tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup Vidalia onion, finely diced
1 sprig fresh mint
1 sprig fresh oregano
Salt and freshly ground pepper (white is best) to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions:
1. Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces.
2. Dice the onion very small and use an amount to your taste. (The recipe calls for about 1/4 cup).
3. Chiffonade the mint to avoid bruising it.
4. Finely chop the oregano and combine all of the ingredients into a bowl.
5. Add a pinch of Kosher salt, ground black pepper and enough olive oil to coat the ingredients.
Recipe courtesy of Evenfall Restaurant, 2011. To see more of the Gloucester Daily Times or to subscribe, go to http://www.gloucestertimes.com/.
Copyright © 2011, Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.