Tomato Vinaigrette

Salad. Every. Single. Day. And we never grow tired of them. I make salad dressing on Sunday and eat it for the week. We won’t eat that salad again for a year. It might sound crazy but if you eat seasonally, it’s quite easy to not repeat.

Salads can easily grow boring – many jarred dressings have common under tones and the same vegetables lack excitement and can be time consuming to chop. Read this post for the 411 on quick salads.

This vinaigrette literally tastes of summer. It doesn’t follow my typical dressing rules and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s still a simple recipe and far tastier than the name implies. This dressing takes me back to springs of my youth. We’d eat loads of tomatoes and cucumbers with Vidalia onions. It was simple. Those three ingredients plus oil and balsamic vinegar and maybe a little salt and pepper.

I snagged this tomato vinaigrette recipe from Samin Nosart’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Treat it as an Italian salad dressing – far better than any you’ll find in the store. I can’t say it’s the best because that would go to Mr. Joe’s. If I ever get my eyes on that recipe, you’ll never find it on here. Sorry y’all it’s not my recipe to give.

Ingredients:
2 Tbl diced shallots
2 Tbl red wine vinegar
1 Tbl balsamic vinegar
1 large very ripe tomato (about 8 ounces)
4 large basil leaves
1 large garlic clove
¼ c extra-virgin olive oil
salt

Directions:
Slice the ends off the shallot. Peel it. Hold the flat side down and thinly slice it pole to pole, then slice across. Place it in a jar and add the vinegars.

Cut the tomato across the equator. Grate cut side down on the large holes of a grater. Discard the skin. Tip – you don’t want to lose the flavorful juices so put your grater on an upside down Pyrex lid – it’s hard to grate in a bowl. The lid edges will catch the juice and the corners will make it easy pouring into a jar. Add the tomato and juice to the jar.

Stack the basil leaves and roll them to have a long roll. Slice thinly across the diameter.

Slice off the ends of the clove of garlic, smash it down using the side of a knife. Remove the shell and chop it into a fine mince. Add it to the jar.

Add the olive oil to the jar. Close the lid tightly and shake, shake, shake. Taste. Add salt if you want (I don’t). Add more vinegar if you need it more acidic or more oil if it’s too mouth popping.

You can dip a piece of lettuce into the dressing and taste it for more accuracy. Let the flavors marry at least 1 hour.

This dressing goes really well on mixed greens with cucumbers and avocados. Make sure you add a little sharp dry cheese and something with a good crunch like croutons.

Notes:
We know I rarely have more than one vinegar opened at one time so I typically use 2 parts vinegar and 1 part lemon juice. In a pinch I’ll even use regular ole white vinegar – in that case, use 2 parts lemon juice and 1 part vinegar.

There’s no need to limit this dressing (or really any) to salads. Give it a go on fish, chicken, or a spinach frittata.