Gemma Tomatoes are possibly my favourite ingredient. They are simple, humble, bursting with flavour and key to so many great meals. I could live on tomatoes. With some sea salt and good quality, extra virgin olive oil I am happy to enjoy a little tomato, onion & olive salad for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
I think tomatoes are a wonderful gift from nature and I like to celebrate them in the simplest of ways. Our garden is currently full of the anticipation of early summer as we watch our tomato plants flower and begin to fruit. Later in the year, we will dine on our tomatoes and their homegrown neighbours daily.
When we are busy and tied to time pressures it can make feeding a family feel overwhelming. I know that it is easy to fall back on my old favourites. To repeat meals and to assume that everyone needs me to make them a hot dinner at the end of the day. As we sink into the summer months I feel the liberation that simple cooking has to offer. Giving myself permission to make things like this tomato salad and simple little dishes for our evening meal makes me feel resoundingly happy.
In May we went away in our trailer tent for a little family holiday. Jim and I have been camping for a long time. Sixteen years ago we had nothing more than a two-man tent in a field with friends, fire, music, great views and a tap in the ground providing us all with fresh water to shake off the terrible cider hangovers. Now we have two children, more stuff than we can fit in our massive car, electricity, lights, chairs and a lot less cider… times have really changed!
One thing that hasn’t changed is my love of cooking outdoors. When we camp I still want to eat great food and because our trailer tent has an amazing little kitchen, I can rustle up a lot of tasty food with limited resources. This tomato, onion & olive salad is a winner in our house. It is full of flavour and takes no time at all to bring to the table.
Tomato, onion and olive salad
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 4 vine tomatoes at room temperature
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 2 cloves garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 2 handfuls of olives of your choice
- Parmesan to serve
- 1 x bake at home baguette
Instructions
- Slice your onion and add to a bowl, cover with a generous sprinkle of sea salt and the juice of ½ a lemon. Give it a good mix and set aside.
- Slice your tomatoes and add them to the onions. I remove the eye of the tomato with a little v cut, you can see how to do this in the video.
- Drizzle the onions and tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil, a sprinkly of oregano (I used about 1 tbsp) give everything a good mix and set aside.
- Finely slice the garlic and gently fry it in extra virgin olive oil. You are just taking the edge off the garlic, be careful not to burn it this is easy to do because garlic has been thinly sliced. Keep an eye on it, the edges should just be turning golden when it is ready.
- Add the garlic and all the oil to the tomatoes and onion and give everything another good mix. You will start to see the juices of the tomatoes collecting in the bowl. The salt has helped the tomatoes to soften and will intensify the tomato flavor. These juices are important because they will be the dressing to finish the dish.
- Take 1 bake at home baguette and slice it into inch thick slices. You can either gently toast or pan fry these slices in a little extra virgin olive oil.
- When your bread is golden on both sides spread them out across plates/a platter. They will act as crostinis.
- Using your hands lift the onion and tomato mix and top the crostini with it. It is important that you retain the juices at the bottom of the bowl so lifting the mix works better.
- Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to the bowl with the juices and give them a good mix. Then drizzle this dressing over the crostini.
- Top with handfuls of olives, gratings of parmesan and black pepper.
- Serve immediately. Dressed tomatoes don’t keep well so if you are making this for lunch keep the tomatoes separate to the onions and dressing until you are ready to serve.
