Dads Tomato Salad

With Victoria Bucknam

Be prepared this summer when the homegrown and locally grown tomatoes start to arrive. Evanfall Restaurant, owned by bother and sister Spiro and Adrienne Pappadopoulos, learned this recipe from their father who grew all of the ingredients in his own garden. Evanfall Chef Victoria Bucknam shows how simple it is to prepare this delicious tomato salad.

The base ingredients are tomatoes, Vidalia onions, fresh grown mint, oregano and olive oil. The fresh mint creates a feeling of overall freshness to the salad. You can easily alter the recipe to suit whatever amount you want to make. Here is how to make a single serving.

They use about 10 grape tomatoes in this video but you can use whatever tomatoes you have, as long as you cut them to bite sized pieces. Dice the onion very small and use according to your taste. The recipe calls for about ¼ cup. Next chiffonade the mint to help avoid bruising it. (Chiffonade is a cooking technique in which herbs or other leafy greens are cut into longer and thinner strips, making fine ribbon like pieces.) Finely chop some fresh oregano and combine all of the ingredients into a bowl.

Add a pinch of Kosher salt, ground black pepper and enough olive oil to coat the ingredients. You just want to use enough oil to bring out the other flavors.

You can eat this salad as is or another idea is to use it to top off an Arrugula or other salad. Because of its’ distinct flavor you will not have to use any other vinaigrette or dressing.

Ingredients

10 grape tomatoes (or other type you have available)
¼ Vidalia onion
1 sprig fresh mint
1 sprig fresh oregano
Salt & freshly ground pepper (white is best) to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

Instructions

1. Cut the tomatoes into bite sized pieces.
2. Dice the onion very small and use an amount to your taste. (The recipe calls for about ¼ cup)
3. Chiffonade the mint to avoid bruising it. (Chiffonade is a cooking technique in which herbs or other leafy greens are cut into longer and thinner strips, making fine ribbon like pieces.)
4. Finely chop the oregano and combine all of the ingredients into a bowl.
5. Add a pinch of Kosher salt, ground black pepper and enough olive oil to coat the ingredients. You just want to use enough oil to bring out the other flavors.Recipe courtesy of Evanfall Restaurant, 2011.

From Food for Thought by Food Columnist Heather Atwood: Along with baking their own bao buns and pulling their own fresh mozzarella, Evenfall preserves lemons for a delicious preserved lemon vinaigrette.  Victoria Bucknam, the chef the day we made a video, stepped out of the cooler checking on a large commercial jar with the label long peeled off, filled with lemons and brine. Victoria’s recipe is sweeter than the ones I’ve known, so the results are more versatile, and less just an innovative way to pour salt.  Evenfall Restaurant looks like a roadside family-style establishment on a stretch of rt. 125 in Haverhill checkered with square tech industry buildings and cow fields, but the quality and modernity of its food could place it in Cambridge, if not Brooklyn.   For a kitchen miles from urbanity, the menu is so current one starts wondering about Haverill’s status as the next cool frontier:  Flash Fried Calamari with harissa aioli and citrus chili sauce.   Grilled Thin Crust Pizzas with roasted tomato sauce and a mozzarella cheese pulled right there in the Evenfall kitchen.  Seared Kobe Burgers served on a house-made bao bun with spicy hoisin sauce and pea shoots.