Garden Recipe: TOMATOES FIGS CHEESE

We have had a tiny fig tree in our back yard for seven years…so maybe we are graced with four or five velvety, crunchy, voluptuous figs each summer.  This year it is veritably FILLED with figs.  It’s still a tiny tree, but it’s trying harder this time. Daydreaming of my favorite garden fruits and vegetables (figs and tomatoes) makes me want to eat this until October.

Ingredients

• 1 T Balsamic vinegar
• ¼ t fine sea salt
• ¼ c really good olive oil
• 3 T pine nuts
• 1 perfectly ripe large tomatoes
• ½ lb (or more!) ripe figs, cut in quarters
• 1 oz crumbled Roquefort cheese
• 1 t fresh thyme leaves
• Black pepper

Whisk the vinegar and salt together, then slowly whisk in the olive oil.  Toast the pine nuts in a small skillet until light golden.  Spread tomato slices on a large plate and scatter the figs and pine nuts over the tomatoes.  Sprinkle with the cheese and thyme then drizzle with the dressing and finish with freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Photo Credits:
Roquefort Cheese, Creative Commons, Roquefort Cheese by Cyn Furey is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Figs, Creative Commons, this year, i have discovered an appreciation of figs by snickclunk is licensed under CC by 2.0
Tomatoes, Public Domain Dedication, Tomatoes by Image Party is licensed under CC0 1.0

Brent and I have now been traveling for many years to Europe to find the perfect pieces for Eye of the Day, but at one time we were star-struck novices and our first trip to Paris to shop for the store was one miraculous impression after another.  A circuitous route to Just Eat It, I know, but together we had a culinary revelation that led to the recipe I am about to share with you. At a small restaurant on the left bank we ordered a Salade de Roquette. No big deal, right? But somehow, this salad attained celestial status to us. Arugula. Olive oil. Salt. Dates.

Now, fifteen years later, Arugula Salad has become ours. We grow arugula so spiky, so small, so spicy and Meyer lemons so juicy and, well, lemony that we think we are now higher on the evolutionary scale than we were on that first trip. This is OUR arugula salad for two (feel free to multiply liberally):

FREITASALAD

2 cups emerald green, spiky, spicy, fresh arugula

1 juicy Meyer lemon (or a regular one if necessary)

A few healthy glugs of Cretan olive oil from our last shipment of pottery from Crete

Maldon sea salt, a little more that you might think

2 Tablespoons of pan roasted pine nuts

4 Medjool dates, pitted and quartered lengthwise

1/3 cup or so of golden curls of Parmigiano Reggiano

Pepper

In your favorite salad bowl, place the cleaned arugula. Squeeze the lemon juice over the arugula, add the olive oil and salt and toss together. Divide between two plates and split the pine nuts, dates and Parmigiano Reggiano between the two salads. Grind a little black pepper over the top if you want more spice. And it is. Over the top.