Recipe: Sliced Tomato Salad with Feta Cheese

This dish is something I threw together as I looked around the kitchen, basement, and refrigerator.

The story actually begins last night when Shelley asked me to do a clean OS install on her notebook PC. Since I tend to be meticulous about things like that, I started by doing a full image backup, then the clean install, then all of the system updates, and then security software and its associated updates. In the end it was close to 3 a.m. when I finally finished the job and went to bed. I got about 4 hours of sleep altogether.

Understandably, I was quite tired by the time late afternoon/early evening rolled around and I really didn’t feel like working through lengthy dinner preparation. I got out a couple boxes of prepackaged Betty Crocker potato casserole mixes and put it together, but just that one item just didn’t seem appropriate for supper. There were a few leftover deviled eggs from yesterday and that would add to the variety, but the problem was that both the potatoes and the eggs were yellow. I try to avoid monochromatic suppers.

I knew there were a couple of fresh tomatoes in the basement. I also knew they had to be used within the next day or two. I thought that since I was using the oven, perhaps I could do something that involved baking the tomatoes… As I pondered that option, a number of different tomato salad dishes I’ve had in the past began to float around in my thoughts. Well, why not try a combination? was my conclusion.

(Start of recipe…)

I started with the tomatoes (I had two medium) and arranged them on a plate. I sliced into paper-thin slices a little bit of onion (about five slices through an onion half) and layered them on top of the tomatoes. I sprinkled a bit of fine sea salt over the entire surface, then dressed it by liberally drizzling honey, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar over the top. I found some feta cheese so I sprinkled that liberally on top. I still had some fresh basil leaves (about 8 medium), so I sprinkled basil chiffonade over top. Voila! It was done. Supper was no longer just yellow.

Around here we don’t always have much choice in the quality of available ingredients. This salad relies on the quality of each ingredient. Try to use the best you can find: sweet, organic tomatoes; red onion; good quality sea salt; first, cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil; good balsamic vinegar; good quality cheese; etc. You get the idea.

You can probably substitute mozzarella for the feta. Just make sure you get it in the fine or craft cheese section rather than the dairy section. You want fresh mozzarella instead of the dry, cardboard like stuff. If you get the small balls, you might dice it up into smaller chunks and sprinkle them on top. If you get a large ball, you can slice it and arrange them with the tomato slices.