Notes: This is my favorite summer salad, when tomato season is in full swing. This dish is also very simple and relies on the flavor of the tomatoes. Around Boulder, that means that we only serve this salad between July and September, depending on the heat. The anticipation only gets us more excited though as we count the days until we can serve it.
This salad goes great with grilled steak on a hot summer day.
Ingredients: 4 lbs tomatoes
1 cups of parsley leaves – roughly chopped
1 cup of mint leaves – roughly chopped
1 2 oz can of anchovies (12 fillets) – finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
1 loaf of freshly baked white bread (round or batard shaped, with a good crust)
Juice of one lemon
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Instructions: This is my favorite summer salad, when tomato season is in full swing. This dish is also very simple and relies on the flavor of the tomatoes. Around Boulder, that means that we only serve this salad between July and September, depending on the heat. The anticipation only gets us more excited though as we count the days until we can serve it.
The first step is to salt the tomatoes. This process takes about two hours to do it properly as the tomatoes absorb the salt very slowly. First cut the tomatoes into a bite-size chunks and toss them in a bowl with three heaped tablespoons of salt. After about 30 minutes, transfer them to another bowl discarding any liquid that remains (it will be very salty and not usable). The tomatoes will continue to lose water and the idea is to save the liquid in the second bowl. Leave the tomatoes for up to 90 more minutes in the bowl.
Next prepare your bread. Take your bread loaf and slice 1” thick slices. Then take each slice and tear it with your hands into pieces about the same size as your tomato chunks. Toss the bread pieces in olive oil and toast in the oven at 250 degrees for fifteen minutes to dry them out a bit. Then turn the oven on to broil and bring the croutons to golden brown. Remove them from the oven, flip the croutons over, and brown the other side of the croutons back in the oven. Remove them from the oven and let them cool to room temperature.
Take your lemon juice, chopped parsley, mint, anchovies and garlic and add it to your bowl of tomatoes – by now there should be a small pool of tomato water at the bottom of the bowl. Toss thoroughly before adding your croutons. Toss everything together and drizzle generously with olive oil.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
