Wednesday 17 October 2012

Tomato, Mozzerella and Basil Salad

Tomatoes are up there with my all time favourite foods. When I was a youngster I used to make myself comfortable in my Grandads greenhouse and work my way through his latest crop, there is nothing worse (for me at 5 years old anyway) than waiting for a fat little tomato to ripen. Fortunately he had a decent sized greenhouse and I had limited stomach capacity otherwise he wouldn't have any left once they did ripen, didn't stop me trying though.


Tomatoes hit their peak around June/July time and there truly is no substitute for a homegrown tomato just taken off the vine. You can tell the quality a mile of just from the smell they give off. A tomato of that quality should not be messed around with, just eat the thing, maybe sprinkle a smidge of salt, perfection.

So why am I talking about tomatoes in October? Well this year has been slightly weird. A colleague of mine recently got a decent batch last week off her plants and last weekend I was in Borough Market of good old London Town and the stand of Heirloom Tomatoes just looked too good to resist, I wish I had got a picture but some stalls get a bit moody about photography.

All of the little beauties had varying shades of colour ranging from speckled light green to blazing fire engine red, in various shapes and sizes so I got a random selection to make a simple tomato salad with. Like I said before don't mess around them.

I also picked up some stunning mozzarella, one of the creamiest I've tasted to go with it and some fresh basil to finish it off. I won't insult you with a recipe just get stuck in if you can find a late batch or wait impatiently like I do for next tomato season.