Making Summer Tomato Salad

After a very slow start due to a cooler than normal Spring followed by incessant rains that made the tomato plants sickly and yellow, the tomatoes have been coming in pretty good.  Each day we bring in a nice bunch of red tomatoes.  This year the stink bug pressure has been lighter than in past years and that's a good thing.  Unfortunately, we won't have enough production to can any stewed tomatoes or tomato sauce, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I've mentioned before that I just can't seem to develop a taste for raw tomatoes.  I know.  I'm strange. I want to like them so bad, but I just can't eat them raw - unless they are in pico de gallo.  I can eat gallons of that stuff.  Tricia makes another similar dish that I call an Italian pico de gallo.  We'll make that today.  Its real name is Summer Tomato Salad and we found it in a cookbook called Tuxedos to Tailgates that my aunt and uncle from Dallas gave us.

It calls for:

• 1 lb. of tomatoes, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped green or black Greek olives
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped purple or sweet onion
• 1 medium garlic clove, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• salt and pepper
• crumbled feta cheese

Ingredients

This is an easy and quick summer dish.  First chop up all the tomatoes.

Chop Chop!

But don't put up the knife.  Chop up the purple onion, parsley and basil.  This makes some nice fragrance drift around the kitchen.

Combine all the tomatoes, olives, parsley, vinegar, olive oil, onion, garlic, basil, salt and pepper into a bowl and mix it up well.  The photo below shows fresh garlic being minced and added into the bowl.

Combining the ingredients

Adding the vinegar

And oil

Finally, crumble some feta cheese on top...

Then mix it all up so that the flavors mesh together and serve at room temperature.

Summer Tomato Salad

Did I mention how easy this is to put together?  Tricia has been making a bowl of this to go along with supper quite often this summer.  This quick and delicious recipe is a winner.  Give it a try while the homegrown tomatoes are still coming in.