Enjoy this post and share with your friends! Summer of ‘25 Tomato Salads - No. 354Tomato Diaries part 4 + two Labor Day recipes + finding joy in this heat
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT the perfect tomato sandwich—soft bread, ripe tomatoes, and your preferred mayo. But what about tomato salad? In this fourth and final installment of the Tomato Diaries, I offer some bright, bold alternatives to the venerable Caprese, a salad firmly rooted in place. Not that the tomato, basil, and fresh mozzarella salad needs replacing. It’s had a good run as the most popular tomato salad of the century. Hailing from the region of very good tomatoes, it was born on the sunny Italian isle of Capri near Sorrento and across the Gulf of Naples from Campania, the heart of Italian mozzarella production. In 1926 at the five-star Grand Hotel Quisisana, it was first served at a dinner where Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, author of the Futurist Manifesto, was speaking. To keep with a “Dinner of the Future” theme, the hotel kitchen created this salad in the colors of the Italian flag, a real departure from the heavy Italian fare popular nearly 100 years ago. The salad would stay dormant, says California food writer Janet Fletcher, until 1954 when the kitchen served it once again, this time to deposed Egyptian King Farouk, in exile on Capri after a military coup. He asked the hotel for something light to eat. And just like that, Caprese became what stylish people ate. If you’ve ever eaten Insalata Caprese in Capri or anywhere else in Italy, you know how good it is. The citrusy olive oil, fragrant basil, velvety cheese, and those sun-ripened tomatoes are perfection. I’ll never forget checking into a rental villa in Tuscany years ago and walking around back to see tomatoes still hanging fat and red on the garden vines, baking in the sun, and waiting for their chance in Caprese.
This summer I’ve been exploring Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, parts of New York, and my home state of Tennessee on vacation and all the while in search of new tomato salads. From the “Heirloom Tomato Salad, Sweet Onion, Pistachio, Red Wine Vinaigrette, Basil” at The Inn at Pound Ridge in Westchester County, New York, a $25 Jean-Georges take on tomato salad using local Hudson Valley tomatoes, to a simpler salad on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, I came home with a pretty strong tomato salad game. Both of those aforementioned salads unveiled flavor surprises, especially the latter at Ruse restaurant inside The Wildset Hotel in St. Michael’s, Maryland, and prepared by James Beard-nominated chef Michael Correll. In lieu of mozzarella he layered soft, whipped feta and red, yellow, and green tomatoes on the plate and drizzled a slender coil of basil oil around them. Locally focused, Correll named his salad after the nearby farm on which the tomatoes grew—Cottingham Farm in Easton, Maryland.
I remember when you waited on tomatoes until they came into season.They weren’t pink hothouse tomatoes, either, and they had flavor. Even something as simple as a cheeseburger didn’t have a slice of tomato on it unless it was summertime. (The exception might have been a BLT, but honestly, we didn’t eat BLTs at home unless there were good tomatoes.) It was nothing like the 1700s in Europe when people were afraid of eating tomatoes. Just a supply issue. Tomatoes always taste best close to where they’ve grown. Did fast food bring us the expectation that tomatoes belonged on every sandwich no matter how pink and mushy they are? When did it become acceptable to make Caprese from tomatoes that have never felt sun? Truth be told, my mother sprinkled sugar over her tomato slices, and now that I have whisked together sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce in one of the recipes I share today, I see the magical alchemy of tomatoes, salt, and sugar. I’m all for bringing back tomato seasonality. Savor them and then move on to fall and winter with root vegetables and the memory that tomatoes and tomato salads, like the pool or trips to the beach, will be ready next summer once again.
There’s a comfort in seasonality. It evokes memories, and memories make us stronger. My mom would have been 100 years of age this December. She was not yet one when Insalata Caprese was first served. And she was born in the decade when (white) women had just won the right to vote. Voting might be something we take for granted today, but up until 105 years ago yesterday, it wasn’t. The women’s fight for this right began before the Civil War. And it would culminate on Aug. 18, 1920 in Nashville when the Tennessee General Assembly provided the final 36th vote to ratify the 19th Amendment, giving (white) women the voting right. Women (and men) of color (including Indigenous People) could not vote until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed. Asian Americans had gained full access to citizenship and voting rights in 1952. The year 1920 might have seemed like victory day for the hard-fought suffrage movement, but for a lot of people voting has been an arduous journey with obstacles like literacy tests, poll taxes, voter ID requirements, and well as intimidation and violence.
I share these dates and stories on a hot August Tuesday to remind us how things flip on a dime.A preacher named Doug Wilson recently said “the 19th Amendment was a bad idea.” And he added that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth agreed with him. Hegseth didn’t just repost Wilson’s comment on social media, but added ‘’Amen.’’ These men insist the 19th Amendment wasn’t as much about disenfranchising women as it was disenfranchising the household. But I say why do some men continue to think they know best about women’s health and voting rights? If women cannot vote, that in itself is disenfranchising a household. End of discussion. And no one can strip us of the joy of a fragrant, ripe tomato salad even in this hot summer of discord, so don’t even try. Happy summer tomatoes! - xo, Anne P.S. One more tomato salad rec: If in Sewanee, Tennessee, on the Cumberland Plateau, have lunch at Lunch restaurant while tomato season lasts. Here’s the post I wrote for Southern Living about Lunch and another great new Sewanee restaurant called Judith from James Beard award-winning chef Julia Sullivan. What are your tomato salad recommendations from your home kitchen or travels?Missed previous Tomato Diary installments? Join us as a paid subscriber!
THE RECIPES: Tomato Salad with Vietnamese FlavorsThis recipe is inspired by something my daughter made one summer. At first I thought the dressing detracted from the flavor of the ripe homegrown tomatoes, but now I know I was wrong. This Bon Appetit dressing of equal parts fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice makes the most exquisite dressing for an end-of-season salad. Bright and unexpected. It’s all about the tomatoes but also the crispy cucumbers. (The magazine’s recipe also included shaved fennel and sweet pepper, so do that, too, if you like.) I shook up the dressing in a jar, and it’s now in my fridge for all kinds of green and tomato salads. Don’t skip the fried shallots. You don’t need both peanuts and fried shallots, but with both, it’s a feast! I grew some Thai basil this year, so that’s the herb I added, but add regular basil, mint, or cilantro if you like. Makes 4 servings
Crispy Shallots: This is my adaptation of a Serious Eats recipe.
Tomato Salad with Basil Oil and Whipped FetaEssentially, this is a Caprese, except omit the fresh mozzarella slices and make the whipped feta instead. You can arrange this salad how you like, with a pile of the feta in the center and tomato slices fanned around it. Or, dab feta on the plate and let that be the glue to keep the tomato slices in place. Tuck basil leaves between tomato slices. Drizzle with basil oil, garnish with more basil, and some toasted pine nuts or pistachios. Do not add salt because the feta is naturally salty. That’s why Chef Correll used some Urfa chile pepper to add some heat, and I added the Brightland terrain seasoning, so some chile or herbal seasoning of your choice is fine but no salt. Always vary your tomatoes not only for color but because different varieties of tomatoes have unique flavors. Makes 4 servings Basil oil: 1 cup fresh basil leaves (some parsley, too, if you want to keep it bright green) 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt Whipped feta: 4 ounces briny feta (sold in a block in brine, not crumbled) 1 ounce cream cheese 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 3 large ripe tomatoes of different varieties and colors, preferably Handful of fresh basil Thinly sliced red onion or shallots, if desired Seasoning of your choice, if desired (such as Urfa chile, Brightland terrain seasoning, but not salt Toasted pine nuts or pistachios
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