Tomato & Watermelon Salad

  

Mark Bittman never ceases to amaze me with his ingenious mix of flavors. I had read about this salad a while back in his NY Times blog. A watermelon and tomato salad. I was intrigued, but then forgot about it. Today I got my CSA bounty and found lots of fresh beautiful yellow and sungold tomatoes AND a watermelon - this salad is all I could think of.

 

Here is his recipe:

Mark Bittman's Watermelon and Tomato Salad

• 2 1/2 cups seedless watermelon, in 1-inch cubes or balls (cut over a bowl to catch the juice and reserve it)
• 1 1/2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 cup finely diced or crumbled Stilton, Gorgonzola, Roquefort or Maytag blue cheese
• 1/2 cup minced scallions
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• Pinch cayenne
• 1/2 cup cilantro or parsley, roughly chopped

Combine the watermelon, tomato, cheese, scallions and salt in a bowl.
Whisk or blend together about 2 tablespoons of the watermelon juice, oil, vinegar and cayenne. To serve, dress the salad with this mixture and garnish with cilantro. Do not refrigerate and serve within 30 minutes.

 

I cut out the salt, since my WI blue cheese had more than enough salt in it. Next time, I might use extra cheese though. I might even recommend cutting down on the dressing. Seemed a bit too soggy towards the end.