A Fresh Salad of Arugula, Feta, Tomatoes, and Plums
A great summer meal to make at home in a matter of minutes
One of the tastiest things I’ve made at home in a long time, this salad is a simple way to bring together some of the season’s best in one delicious dish: heirloom tomatoes, fresh plums, arugula, and feta. The salad’s flavor runs the gamut from savory to sweet, sour, and salty—plus umami as well!
It’s super easy to make. Cut some ripe heirloom tomatoes into wedges, then do the same with plums (discarding the pits). Lay the fresh arugula leaves down on a plate, and pile the tomato and plum pieces on top. Sprinkle with a bit of fine sea salt, toss on some torn leaves of fresh mint and/or basil, and crumble high-quality feta over the whole thing.
To dress it, I like to go with one of the great fruit vinegars we have from Pojer e Sandri in the Alto Adige region of Italy. Fiorentino Pojer and Marco Sandri began making vinegar in the mid-’70s. While most fruit vinegars you’ll see in the market are made just by adding fruit flavorings to wine vinegar, Pojer e Sandri use local fruit to make fruit wine—the way it’s been done for centuries—then convert that slowly, over a period of 18 to 24 months, to vinegar, employing old-school natural-conversion methods. The juice is placed in oak-, cherry-, or acacia-wood barrels to acetify for up to two years before bottling. Right now, we have quince (my favorite), blackcurrant, and cherry—any or all of them would be terrific.
After you sprinkle the vinegar, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and, finally, toss on a bunch of toasted sesame seeds. We have some awesome organic ones from the district of Evros in the far northeastern part of Greece, where it butts up against both Bulgaria and Turkey. The seeds are good on the salad both as is or, if you like, lightly toasted—you can decide based on your taste preference! And oh yeah, I almost forgot: add a few red pepper flakes for spice. The Marash pepper we get from Turkey is marvelous. The finished salad is both beautiful and delicious!
