While on the lookout for the perfect dish to bring to a Father’s Day cookout, Kyle found himself browsing a local Italian shop, La Stalla Market. Inspiration came about in the window of the deli counter. A bin, simply labeled “Tomato Salad”, caught his eye. The large chunks of the fresh tomato with a bit of blue cheese and pickled slivers of white onions seemed almost too simple, yet he couldn’t get the salad out of his head.
The pure genius of this salad was in its simplicity. The flavor of the tomatoes were able to radiate their peak ripeness while being accentuated by the tartness of the onion and the funkiness of the cheese.
The salad almost seemed a bit too simple. The fear of giving our followers another tomato salad seemed like salad overkill since we just posted a tomato salad with cucumbers and chickpeas. The recipe just called for a couple pounds of tomatoes cut into large chunks, tossed with half of a white onion – thinly sliced – in a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar and a crumble of Gorgonzola cheese. Everything is just combined and ready to enjoy. Easy as that!
The solution to Kyle’s quandary appeared in a recent issue of Food & Wine with a recipe for Burst Cherry Tomatoes and Pancetta. The recipe was a creation of Food & Wine Best New Chef Michael Gallina. In his recipe, the cherry tomatoes are sautéed with pancetta, garlic and onions until the tomatoes pop!, releasing their juices and creating a concentrated tomato sauce for the dish. It is then served on a thick piece of toast that has been smeared with ricotta cheese.
Kyle did change quite a few ingredients, but the spirit of Gallina’s original recipe did shine throughout his take on the toast, which served as the perfect vessel for highlighting the flavors of the La Stalla Market salad.
Kyle first pickled the onions in some white vinegar instead of sautéing them with the tomatoes. Marinating the onions provided a touch of acidic flavor while subduing the pungent taste of the raw onions (which we all know, Kyle hates!).
The toast is topped with the crumbled blue cheese – Kyle used a mild Danish blue that was creamy and mildly pungent, compared to most blue cheese. However, any blue cheese would work for the recipe. The pancetta was completely omitted in order to eliminate the possibility of one-too-many salty ingredients, which could have lead to a total toast salt bomb.
Since he already was using the blue cheese, he decided not to spread the toasts with ricotta cheese. That may have been one cheese too many for a summer dish. The creamy avocado provided the same effect without making the toasts way too rich.
You may be thinking, this is technically an avocado toast. Maybe so. Despite some recent avocado toast backlash and many calling the dish “basic”, most likely due to its explosive popularity, this is a delicious summer treat. If loving this recipe makes one basic, so be it. Fine – I will sit in a pair of leggings, sip on Pinot Noir, while taking a selfie that I will post on Instagram using a fine filter. If being basic means I can enjoy this dish, then declare me basic-guilty! This can be served as an appetizer or as a heartier meat-free main dish. So to all the “basics” out there, enjoy this fabulous treat!
Inspired by a recipe from Michael Gallina via Food & Wine.
- ½ of a small white onion, peeled and thinly sliced
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound cherry tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- Dash red pepper flakes
- 1 large (or 2 smaller, as I used) ripe avocados, sliced in half and pit removed
- Toasted bread, for serving
- 1 to 2 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese (I used a milder Danish blue)
- In a shallow bowl, combine onion and vinegar and toss to combine. Let it marinate, tossing every few minutes, while you prepare the rest of the toasts. (Note: you will have leftover onions, they’ll keep in the fridge for several days, and make a great topping for sandwiches, grilled steak, or future batches of this toast!)
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add tomatoes, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring often, until tomatoes burst and begin to release their juices, about 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt.
- Scoop the avocado out of its skin, and smash onto the toast with a fork, spreading evenly over the entire surface of the toast. and top with tomato mixture. Sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese and the reserved marinated onions. Serve immediately.
Leave a Reply