Simple Homegrown Tomato Salad

The tomato plants are teeming with the first fruit, the cherries, at the moment.  I was super excited because it gave me the opportunity to take my new flash bottle of sherry vinegar for a spin and try out our new Strathbogie Ranges extra virgin olive oil – I know, what a food snob – anyway..  We had the most gorgeous, simple salads tonight with a beautiful scotch fillet.  Simple cherry tomato salad with sherry vinegar, olive oil and pecorino shavings and a little bit of fennel salad on the side (see Fennel and Radish Salad – but tonight without the radishes).  There is nothing like the flavour of homegrown tomatoes.  I don’t know what happens to the tomatoes we buy in the shops but they are pale, thick skinned, spongey and flavourless – so far removed from the real thing.  The colour of this salad was amazing.  Such a simple way to make these beauties stand out.

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well” – Virginia Woolf

Ingredients

cherry or other varieties of homegrown tomatoes

a couple of splashes of good quality sherry vinegar

a good drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Parmesan, Pecorino or other hard salty cheese, shaved

Method

Cut the tomatoes in half or smaller for larger toms and add to a shallow bowl.  Add the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Shave over the cheese and serve.