Late summer melon and heirloom tomatoes make a great seasonal salad
At our house Tammie and I eat very late in the evening, a lot like Spaniards. By the time I get back from work and she does everything she does with dogs and farming, it’s almost always around 10:00 at night. A few years ago this month, when I got home late one evening Tammie had already started cooking. She’d pulled a couple of great fresh ingredients together that I’d brought back earlier that day at the farmers market and put them together in a way I’d never considered.
She started by cutting the cantaloupe I’d bought at the Westside Farmers’ Market into bite-sized pieces. She then cut up some of the ripe tomatoes she grows at Tamchop Farm—she used her Moldovan Greens, but any of the good ripe heirloom tomatoes you can still find at the market will work. She cut up a few spicy peppers into small slivers; Tammie used some of the incredible Habanada peppers she was growing. Use any hot fresh chile you like—Padróns have been really good this year, jalapeños, etc. She drizzled some of the wonderful Italian chestnut honey we have over the top. The honey’s bittersweet succulence is very a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the melon. A pinch of sea salt and a little bit of the slightly sweet, slightly hot Korean red chile flakes we get from our friends at Épices de Cru in Canada. A drizzle of good olive oil and it was ready to go.
What a wonderful treat that was. The juices from the tomatoes and the melons pooled on the plate. You can eat ’em with a spoon, or put some Paesano bread in there to soak them up. You could also add some toasted nuts or crumbled feta, goat cheese, or for that matter, Garrotxa. Give it a try. It’s a wonderful way to mark the season and support local farmers as we move into the final weeks of summer!
