Tomatoes Three Ways

It is finally tomato season at our house.  The best ones aren't ripe yet.  And, I'm not terribly fond of the one plant that's already producing.  The tomatoes are just a bit mealy for my taste.  My favorites of all time are still Black Brandywines.  All of that aside, I'm just happy to have real tomatoes and not the canned kind.  My Black Brandywines will be ripe soon enough and I'll just eat those with a bit of salt and pepper. 

A few days ago I picked the first ripe zucchini.  And, I had a handful of cherry tomatoes.  And, a container of buratta.  I was thinking a riff on caprese salad would be good.  Was it ever.  We've now made the salad twice in a week.  It's super simple and very flavorful.

Then, we had BLT's.  Of course.  That's summer food.  The only BLT I eat otherwise is the special one at the Barking Dog Café.  There they have home cured Bark Lard, tomato jam, basil mayo and lettuce on BLT's.  They're heavenly. 

Last, but not least, we had Boudro's Guacamole.  Boudro's is on the Riverwalk in SanAntonio.  They make this killer tableside guac.  Did I mention how well it went with the killer prickly pear margaritas?  Oh, yeah!!!

I had to try it for myself!  I've got to say that the real thing prepared tableside is better...  But, this is pretty darned good :-)

Zucchini Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

1 small zucchini
12 cherry or grape tomatoes
1 buratta
6 large basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil (I used blood orange olive oil)
balsamic vinegar (I used Sicilian lemon balsamic)

Directions:

Shave the zucchini lengthwise.  Because this was a really fresh zucchini from our yard, I didn't peel it.  I did, however, avoid the seeds.  Pile the shavings in the center of two salad plates.  Surround with halved cherry tomatoes.  Chop the buratta.  Divide it between the salad plates.  Chop the basil and scatter it on top of the buratta.  Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.