Heirloom Tomato Salad with Jamon Serrano, Anchovies, and Boiled Eggs
A big part of working on a produce farm as a teen involved the tomato planting,maintenance, and harvesting. We grew a bunch of fabulous, ugly-looking, giantheirloom tomatoes that were twice the size of your fist, and incredibly sweet.This recipe celebrates the upcoming summer and fall Heirloom tomato harvestperiod, with some thinly-sliced Jamon Serrano, anchovies, and hard-boiled eggsadded for good measure.The following recipe makes 4 large salads.
Ingredients
- 4 whole eggs, (hard-boiled)
- 32 oz 2 lbs Heirloom tomatoes, washed and cut into bite-sized chunks
- ½ tsp Kosher salt
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
- ½ clove garlic, (finely minced)
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp honey
- 4 oz Jamon Serrano, (as thinly-sliced as possible)
- 4 anchovy fillets, (roughly chopped)
- 1 Tbsp fresh chives, (finely sliced)
- ¼ tsp freshly-ground black pepper
Instructions
- Hard-boil and peel 4 eggs.
- Cut the eggs into quarters, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for later.
- Cut the Heirloom tomatoes into bite-sized chunks.
- Salt the tomatoes, and set aside in a bowl for ten minutes to absorb the salt and
- release some of their water.
- While the tomatoes are draining some of their liquid, prepare a quick vinaigrette.
- For the vinaigrette, combine the olive oil, sherry vinegar, minced garlic, red pepper
- flakes, Dijon mustard, and honey in a small bowl.
- Whisk to combine the vinaigrette, and set aside for later.
- When you are ready to assemble your salads, drain the liquid from the tomatoes,
- and toss the tomatoes with the vinaigrette that you made earlier.
- Divide the tomatoes tossed with the vinaigrette into 4 bowls.
- Top with the thinly-sliced Jamon Serrano, the chopped anchovy fillets, and the
- hard-boiled eggs.
- Garnish with some finely-sliced fresh chives, and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Serve at room temperature, with a side of toasted bread and an extra drizzle of
- olive oil.
Notes
Ask your butcher to slice your Jamon Serrano for you.
Tomato plants will start flowing and producing fruit when they begin to receive
signals from mother nature that cold weather is coming, as the number of hours that they are exposed to sunlight drops towards the end of the summer. The longer
periods of darkness trigger production of the fruit, which is pretty cool. If you keep the tomato plants exposed to light for 24 hours a day and feed them an
adequate supply of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, the plants will continue to
grow larger and larger in this vegetative stage, providing a stronger skeleton for the
tomatoes to grow from once the plant enters the flowering stage and starts
producing fruit.
signals from mother nature that cold weather is coming, as the number of hours that they are exposed to sunlight drops towards the end of the summer. The longer
periods of darkness trigger production of the fruit, which is pretty cool. If you keep the tomato plants exposed to light for 24 hours a day and feed them an
adequate supply of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, the plants will continue to
grow larger and larger in this vegetative stage, providing a stronger skeleton for the
tomatoes to grow from once the plant enters the flowering stage and starts
producing fruit.