Salsa Salad

This is a great idea – stolen from Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall. He asks, when does a salad become a salsa? Basically it depends how finely you chop it. Perfect for warm days, especially served with a fresh, milky ball of mozzarella, or two.

500g ripe vine tomatoes

1 medium red onion

2 tbsp capers

A good squeeze of lemon juice

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

A small handful of chopped coriander

A tbsp. of mint or basil leaves

Good salt & pepper

Simplicity. Stick some 80’s pop classics on and chop the tomatoes and onion. Chuck in a bowl with the capers – I do prefer the salt preserved kind. Whisk the oil and lemon together with the salt and pepper and pour over. I like an acidic dressing and so use half a lemon, though feel free to use much less. Add the chopped herbs.

We’re having this with toasted sourdough, sliced avocado and torn mozzarella – actually it’s a hearty starter to some Italian tomato soup – bought, not home-made.

Some variations to the salsa-salad – I do use coriander a lot so the boy might appreciate flat leaf parsley and Thai Basil instead. I do usually grow both, though it’s a bit early for them right now. A mild chilli chopped into the salad would better reflect its salsa origin, though he certainly won’t appreciate that.