Since the city is still inordinately hot due to it’s smoldering reality, we’ve been more than a little averse to turning on the oven. The mere though of cooking anything, while usually a welcome and blissful notion this week seems like some kind of seventh ring of hell type punishment. Instead we’re opting for cold preparations of anything powerful enough to stand on its own, receiving little more than a cutting and a garnishing.
We’re nearing the end of the stone-fruit season, and tomatoes are really rocking, so why not throw them together? Just like throwing a little salt on your desert, these two fruits offer flavors and textures that compliment and contrast to each-other; both are acidic, both are (or should be) sweet, and both have a lusty oozy nature that prompts slurping and licking. IT was only a matter of time before they ended up on the cutting board together. Are peach soups and tomato cobblers in the not so distant future?
We’ll see…when it’s a little more realistic to turn on any kind of flame.
Momotoro and Yellow Nectarine Salad
(serves 2)
1 ripe Momotoro tomato
1 ripe yellow nectarine
2 cups of Arugula
3 Tbs. Olive oil
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper
1. Wash your fruits and greens.
2. Core the nectarine carefully so as to not crush its flesh. One way is to score the fruit all the way to its pit as if you were going to cut it in quarters. Then run a paring knife gently around the outside of the pit.
3. Slice the nectarine and tomato nice and neat.
4. Toss the Arugula with 2 Tbs. of olive oil.
5. Assemble your slices all pretty like. Garnish with dressed Arugula. Then drizzle the remaining oil on the fruits. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. That’s it.
Beverage: Ska Brewing’s Mexican Logger
Soundtrack: John Fahey’s Seachanges and Ceolecanths
it’s gorgeous.