Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Summer Tomato Salad


I can't believe what I am doing right now! Just got a few minutes free from work, and here I am. Posting....
As I mentioned in one of my earliest blogs, I love to eat tomatoes. Raw, cooked - in any form. I love the green and red tomato dishes with spices that my mom makes. Truly divine. They are more like jam and I eat them with my rotis smeared with them. Today, I am not making that dish though. It's still waiting for mom to come back and make! Today, I want to talk about the delicious tomato salad I made that was finger licking good and a treat to look at.  I saw a few blogger friends come up with such pretty, eye pleasing dishes, I thought hmmmm, what I should make that could really stand out?! And I wanted to make a real easy, simple dish that could be made in a jiffy and at the same time, it should be filling and pretty looking. And yes, most important part - the ingredients. I didn't want to use exotic ingredients that you can hardly find. It should be made of easy to find and relatively inexpensive ingredients.

So I was still debating myself on what to make and last Wednesday, I went out for a walk in my lunch time to the nearby farmers' market. Every summer, we have this farmer's market opens up that sells fresh from the farm veggies, fruits and freshly baked breads and cookies. There I saw these pretty Roma tomatoes. Hard to resist. I tried a piece of it, and wow, it was so sweet and juicy. So I just bought a basket of those tomatoes. I knew that I will be making a tomato salad with those tomatoes. I also have a very pretty looking oregano plant in my garden and some mozzarella di bufala in my fridge. So my tomato salad was all shaped up. This is going to be a very healthy and delicious salad for sure, I thought. In my mind, I was sure I would be just chopping everything and tossing them together. Finally, it occurred to me to make a salad a Virtual Treat! And here it is. Simple, fresh ingredients transformed into a palate pleasing healthy dish.

Summer Tomato Salad
Ingredients

2-3 Roma tomatoes, sliced in 1/4" thick slices
A palmful of oregano leaves
1/2 lb. mozzarella di bufala cheese, sliced
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
Oil for frying cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil

How to:
Dredge cheese slices in bread crumbs and deep fry them.
Keep warm on a paper towel.
Arrange a thick slice of tomato on a serving plate.
Season with salt and pepper. Top with a slice of cheese, seasoned well.
Place a few oregano leaves on top of the cheese.
Repeat.
Season each layer with salt and pepper as you go.
Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and serve.
Enjoy the anti oxidants and lycopene rich salad that is not only an eye candy but very beneficial for skin too!

4 comments:

  1. Awesome..It reminded me of Thomas train..Lovely presentation..:-)Refeshing salad too,lizy!!

    Ongoing Events at(Erivum Puliyum)-
    1. The Kerala Kitchen(June'12)

    2.EP Series-Basil OR Cardamom

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  2. Refreshing salad Lizy... Nice presentation

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  3. Super tempting salad, loving this fabulous presentation.

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