Cherry tomato vinaigrette

August 29, 2016 Published by Dina

I would venture to say that this vinaigrette is so good that it doesn’t require a salad. Give me this dish with a crusty baguette and leave me alone and I would finish it right off the skillet, still warm and you will hardly need to rinse the skillet.

As all good food tends to be, it is super simple and depends on the quality of ingredients. I was watching a food show on Netflix the other day and the chef (quoting another chef) said that mis en place begins at the farm. Mis en place refers to gathering the ingredients for a dish, generally meaning organizing them on the counter before you begin cooking. Rightly, he said it begins earlier, with selecting the ingredients.

This dish only contains olive oil, garlic and tomatoes, with salt, pepper, vinegar and parsley as seasoning. I used a wonderful Spanish olive oil from VOM FASS olive, vinegar and spices in the mission shopping center in Kelowna that works wonders in this vinaigrette. The tomatoes were from my morning trip to the farmers market, grown organically from heirloom seeds. The garlic was fresh, purple and fragrant, the vinegar was Sherry Vinegar from Cadiz and the salt was hand gathered fleur de sel from France. How can you go wrong with these ingredients? True, not everything is local, but olive trees do not grow here and there are no local salts either.

I made this vinaigrette to go with fresh yellow beans as the tangy vinaigrette balances the buttery beans nicely. You can use it warm or room temperature and serve it with just about any summer vegetables you cook or frankly, on its own. Try it with green beans, roasted eggplant slices, zucchini and more.

My husband went to pick up a fresh baguette from Okanagan Groceries Artisan Breads to eat this with. We are in for a treat.

Enjoy.


Tomato vinaigrette

Tomato vinaigrette


Ingredients:

6 tablespoons olive oil (see note above)

1 large fresh garlic clove, sliced

1 pints cherry tomatoes, heriloom or best available to you

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

Salt and pepper

3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

Directions:

Warm up 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a skillet with the sliced garlic (add the garlic when the oil is still cold) until the garlic just begins to release its aroma. Do not let it get brown or even golden, keep the heat low.

Halve the the tomatoes and add to the skillet.

Cook on low heat until the tomatoes release their juices and begin to break down but don’t cook so long so they dissolve.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

When the tomatoes are cooked remove from heat and add the remaining olive oil and the vinegar.

Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Add the chopped parsley.

Serve warm over cooked vegetables.


Tomato vinaigrette



 

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