Recipes / Heirloom Tomato Salad
Heirloom Tomato Salad with Salt and Good Oil
There is no technique to hide behind here. A good heirloom tomato is the entire dish, and everything else in the recipe exists to stay out of its way.
Ingredients
- 2 lb mixed heirloom tomatoes, at room temperature
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt
- 3 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp aged red wine or sherry vinegar
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- A handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
Instructions
- Bring the tomatoes to room temperature. Cold tomatoes have no aroma — the compounds that make a tomato smell like a tomato are barely volatile below about 55°F.
- Core and cut into thick slices and irregular wedges. Varying the shapes makes the plate look like food rather than a diagram.
- Lay them out in a single layer and season evenly with flaky salt.
- Wait ten to fifteen minutes. The salt pulls juice out of the fruit, and that juice becomes the dressing.
- Drizzle with olive oil and a very small amount of vinegar. Crack pepper over the top and scatter torn basil.
- Serve right away, with bread.
Notes
Prep 10 minutes · Rest 15 minutes · Serves 4
The most important instruction is the one about temperature. If the tomatoes have been refrigerated, the salad is already lost — whole tomatoes should be held at 55–60°F and never in a cooler.
Additions that work without taking over: torn mozzarella or burrata, thinly sliced red onion soaked in cold water, or a few baby heirlooms halved for contrast.
