Heirloom Tomato Salad with Mozzarella

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

There’s no better way enjoy ripe tomatoes than in a salad. You can always find tomatoes at the grocery, but there’s just something special about them during peak season. They are juicy with so much flavor that you wouldn’t get any other time of year.

If you are lucky enough to have your own garden tomatoes or access to a local farmers market, this salad is for you. Again, simple seasonal recipes are best when you use high quality ingredients. They do all the hard work with no effort from you other than picking them out.

This isn’t just another tomato mozzarella salad. Besides heirloom tomatoes, it has a finely chopped Fresno chili, which gives the salad a touch of heat. I toss the salad in an herby balsamic vinaigrette made with red onions and parsley too, and I add toasted pine nuts.

What are Heirloom Tomatoes?

Once only a farmers market find, heirloom tomatoes are grown from seeds that have been passed down through generations. They are naturally pollinated, which means that their flowers are fertilized by bees, birds or wind. Unlike common varieties of tomatoes, which are bread with transport and shelf-stability in mind, heirloom tomatoes tend to be more delicate with taste being their priority. (source)

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

For salad:

• Heirloom tomatoes: Over the past few years, I have been very impressed with the tomato selection at the grocery because it is so much more than just the usual varieties. Of course, farmers markets are heirloom tomato central from mid to late summer. I like to slice the tomatoes into wedges for this salad.
• Fresh mozzarella is wonderfully milky and mellow balancing out the acidity of the tomatoes and the dressing. You can use burrata if you want the cheese to be more rich and decadent. With its briny and salty bite, feta is another great option. I recommend taking a block and breaking it into pieces or cutting it into cubes.
• Pine nuts: When you toast nuts in the oven, it really brings out their nutty flavor. Give pine nuts 4-5 minutes on a sheet pan in a 350-degree F oven. Keep an eye on them because they can brown faster than you expect. Chopped walnuts are a good substitute.
• Basil: I chop basil leaves and wait to stir them into the salad until the tomatoes have had a chance to soak up the vinaigrette.

For vinaigrette:

• Balsamic vinegar is tart with an almost sweet and sour taste. If you prefer a less bold vinaigrette, then use white balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar.
• Garlic: The recipe calls for 1 garlic clove.
• Fresno chili: In terms of heat, a Fresno pepper similar to a jalapeño, but it has more smoky and fruity flavor.
• Red onions: It is important to finely chop the onions. This is also what I do for my marinated cherry tomatoes recipe. Then those small onions bits end up well incorporated into the salad.
• Parsley: For fresh herbs, I mix chopped parsley right into the vinaigrette.
• Mustard helps to emulsify salad dressings. I like whole grain mustard for flavor and texture, but you can substitute with dijon mustard.
• Olive oil: It’s best to use a high quality extra virgin olive oil.
• Kosher salt & black pepper season the dressing.

Optional Additions

This is where you can take this heirloom tomato salad into more familiar territory and turn it a panzanella salad or a Greek salad.

• To make it a panzanella salad, add croutons, diced cucumbers and pitted kalamata olives.
• To make it a Greek salad, add sliced or diced cucumbers and pitted kalamata olives and switch out the cheese to feta.

How To Make This Heirloom Tomato Salad

1. Make the vinaigrette. Stir the garlic, chilies, mustard, onions, parsley, salt, pepper, vinegar and oil in a big bowl. You are going to use this for the dressing and the rest of the salad ingredients, so it should be large enough for everything.

2. Stir the tomatoes into the vinaigrette. As you take your spoon and mix them together, the tomatoes will release some of their juices into the dressing.

3. Fold in the torn mozzarella, pine nuts and basil. I wait to do this until after giving the tomatoes a really good stir with the vinaigrette.

Serving

This tomato salad is a side dish that works well with vegetarian main dishes such as barbecue tofu veggie skewers, roasted ratatouille quinoa or grilled tofu shawarma. Also, you can eat it with pastas such as sun-dried tomato pesto gnocchi, fresh herb pappardelle or arugula pesto pasta. 

Recipe Tips

Use good tomatoes. I can’t emphasize this enough. There’s no point in making a tomato salad unless you have juicy ripe tomatoes. 

Don’t be scared of the Fresno chilies. I would describe them as adding a hint of heat. If you are sensitive to spicy food, then you can reduce the amount to a quarter or a half of the chili. Try and start with less than the recipe calls for, you always can add more.

Taste the salad to see if it needs additional seasoning. This isn’t about making your food salty. Actually salt can be the on-switch for all the flavors of a dish.

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