Friday, November 2, 2007

Alone. Together. Tomatoes.

The other night I was making dinner with my friend Amy Burton (yes, the famous soprano). As we were debating the fine points of how exactly to "encrust" chicken thighs with black sesame seeds, I noticed that she had earlier begun to prepare an interesting salad. It was interesting because it contained no lettuce. No lettuce of any kind.

I wondered if she was planning to add some leafy greens, but she said she had the notion to make a salad consisting only of tomatoes. Together we proceeded to chop tomatoes of various sizes and colors, trying to keep the resulting pieces to a more or less uniform size. The result was a delightfully fresh, simple and juicy accompaniment to the chicken. Great idea, Amy.

Full disclosure: in the end, we did add just a touch of leafy greens. It wasn't lettuce, but some wonderfully complementary coriander leaves (or cilantro, as Amy calls it, but that's a debate for another day).

2 comments:

Amy 7E said...

Amy here, excited to see my tomato salad on Fooditude! I actually have been making this tomato salad for years, especially when really tasty Heirloom tomatoes are available. Fresh cilantro (OK, coriander leaves, sheesh!), salt, pepper, good olive oil and a dash of white balsamic vinegar is the full recipe. You can also make it with fresh dill and lemon/oil.

Katie Bowen said...

I'm not famous and I can't sing a tune, but I do love tomatoes. If you two ever make that again, please invite me over. I'll bring the pepper.