Recipe: Heirloom Tomato Salad

As the weather heats up in DC, look for some beautiful heirloom tomatoes at your local farmers market.  This recipe is wonderful and colorful for summer.

Ingredients

6 Assorted heirloom tomatoes

1 Sweet Beauty Watermelon (or Variety of your choice)

1/4 cup Marcona almonds, cut in halves (Or Toasted Regular almonds)

3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil

3 tsp Blis Sherry Vinegar (Balsamic works also)

6 Leaves of Thai Basil

¼ cup of Capricious Goat Cheese (Any aged goat or sheep's milk cheese will work)

1 Tbsp Sea Salt

Cut the tomatoes into slices and/or quarters depending on their size and your preference. Also, cut the watermelon into a size that fits your taste. Remove the seeds from the watermelon if any. Arrange the tomatoes and watermelon on 4 individual plates in any way you desire. Next, liberally sprinkle the almond halves and basil leaves over the salad. To dress, drizzle the extra virgin olive oil and the blis sherry vinegar over the tomatoes and watermelon. Finish the salad with sea salt.

Photos by Mary Diaz

Hopefully you've had a chance to check out the 1789 episode. We had a fun time filming at the 1789 Restaurant in Georgetown with Chef Daniel Giusti. You don't necessarily have to have all of the fancy items that Chef Dan used to make this at home. You don't have to use baby watermelons. Try to find a seedless sweet watermelon and slice it into small bite-sized pieces. If you don't have Sherry Vinegar, try any of the fantastic selection from J.D. Gourmet.