SATURDAY SALADS

On Saturdays I will share my favorite salad recipes. Most of these will be meals in themselves. Many will come from the many foodie blogs I read, but some will just be my own concoctions. I hope you will enjoy them.

Today I will share one of my own. It is a salad that I wait all summer to eat and eat it I do. Almost every day! Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE tomatoes. This year I had 7, yes count them 7 pots of tomatoes on my patio garden. I had one that was called black seaman, it was a brownish color blushed with red and sweet as sugar! I also grew sweet millions, brown babies, and a long yellow one that I have forgotten the name of. Not such a good one to eat out of hand but broke down nicely and quickly to make a quick and fresh tomato sauce for a summer veggie pasta dish.

I also grew a zebra tomato. Took me 2 years of growing them to figure out just the right time to pick them. They stay green you see. When the tops just get brushed with a sunlight yellow and they give slightly to the “Whipple Charmin squeeze” they are ripe and sweet.

I grew another red and a yellow and an orange cherry variety…can’t remember the name off hand. But these were sweet and all of them add to making such a colorful confetti of a ‘mater salad. That is if I can keep my mom from eating the tiny ones long enough to get them made into a salad!

I don’t have pictures of the ‘mater salad I made for supper last night, it went way to fast and we were way to hungry to wait to snap pics. I will try to get a picture when I make it again.

As with most of my salad recipes the ingredient amounts are flexible and I don’t really measure. The more colors of tomatoes you can use the prettier it will be. And we all know I love pretty colorful food!

'Mater Salad

2-3 medium sized slicing tomatoes
handful or two of cherry, grape or smaller tomatoes
Onion, (to taste) chopped – can be red, yellow, scallions (or garden onions as we call them here in the Midwest) or heck even shallots will work
Garlic clove minced…or not
Cucumber-peeled, seeded, and cubed
Fresh Basil cut in chiffinade (can use dried)
Some good olive oil
A few splashed of balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Oregano (dried or fresh)

Mix all together and serve. If you want to let marinate don’t put in the ice box. Never put tomatoes in the ice box! They never taste the same after any time in the ice box. If you have leftovers I do put it in the icebox, of course, but the salad really changes in taste and texture. I try (notice I said try) to only make enough for one meal. But it is kinda like soup, hard to make only enough for one meal!

This salad can also be transformed by adding good black Italian olives, feta, mozzarella or shaved Parmesan cheese, or even marinated artichoke hearts. I have even added leftover steamed zucchinis, yellow squash or asparagus to it too. And of course by adding day old pan toasted Italian bread cubes, yellow, green and red peppers you have the yummy Italian bread and tomato salad Panzanella.

As you can see this salad recipe can be changed, added to and subtracted from to match your own tastes and what you have on hand. The only ingredient that you must have is great tasting fresh summer tomatoes. Please don’t try to make this with winter hothouse tomatoes. I have tried when my tomato cravings got the best of me, and um—well lets just say that it wasn’t pretty.