Stunning tomato salad from the Ritz in Paris
Rarely do fancy and easy go hand in hand, but here you have it.
This is one of the simplest and most beautiful salads ever invented. It’s an old recipe that used to be on the menu at the Ritz in Paris. A gorgeous red ring of salted ripe tomato with a white stracciatella cheese center, set on a cold plate surrounded by a thin pool of the best olive oil and decorated with fresh basil.
Here is how it’s done.
You’ll need:
1 large ripe beefsteak or heirloom tomato (One tomato usually makes two servings)
Stracciatella cheese
Olive oil (the best you can get)
Crunchy salt
Small fresh basil leaves for garnish
Take a large tomato and submerge it in a small pan of simmering water for 15 seconds. Remove it and slip off the peel. You will have a large peeled tomato.
Next, slice the tomato about 3/8” to 1/2” thick. You will only get two slices from the widest part of each tomato. Use the rest of the tomato for something else.
Then take a ring cutter that matches the size of the core of the tomato, and punch out the yellow/green core. (I love this set of ring cutters because they come in a range of sizes and you can pick the one that will just punch out the right amount of tomato core. You can use these for a hundred other things, too, like biscuits, cookies, etc.)
Once you have your tomato with the center removed, set it on a paper towel and sprinkle it with crunchy salt, preferably Maldon, and chill it in the fridge for up to an hour. It’s also nice to chill your plates.
When it’s time to serve, place the tomato on a chilled plate. Carefully spoon stracciatella cheese into the hole in the center so that it comes up to the level of the tomato. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil around the tomato. Just enough to make a thin green ring. Then decorate the tomato with small basil leaves. If you have them, some thyme blossoms or chive blossoms are really beautiful too. And Voilà!
Your friend,
Yvonne
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