lunch for one. tomato and celery salad with shaved baby fennel and dill flower.

I am working from home today, and found myself making my go to summer salad for lunch. It is super similar to the one I made a few weeks back but tastes surprisingly different with just a couple substitutions. There really is no recipe, it is just thrown together based on whatever I had in the house. I can't seem to get away from this tomato celery combo this season... it is so good! This salad was a melange of  tiny summer tomatoes. I picked up a couple of mixed quarts of them at the Union Square Green Market along with some fresh dill flower, baby fennel and my favorite red celery. I went to my trusty mandolin for perfectly thin celery and fennel. It is my favorite kitchen tool hands down.  I have a really good French mandolin but I prefer a simple Japanese one (I use one from MUJI) I use it through all the seasons! You can also find nice Japanese ones at a Japanese hardware store or a Japanese Mart.  I hope you are inspired to get the Greenmarket and make a version of this salad. Add a little fresh goat cheese if you would like to make it a bit more substantial.

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Lunch For One ; Tomato and Celery Salad with Shaved Baby Fennel and Dill Flower.

A 1/2 quart of mixed cherry tomatoes

One stalk of red celery ( I used the nub end as all my celery was previously devoured.)

One baby fennel bulb

A couple sprigs of fresh dill flower

Juice of half a lime

Good Extra Virgin olive oil

crunchy sea salt

METHOD

Chop the tomatoes into halves or quarters depending on size

Shave the celery over the tomatoes with the mandolin

Shave the fennel bulb over the celery with the mandolin

Add the sprigs of dill

Squeeze the 1/2 of lime over the salad

Douse with some extra virgin olive oil

Top off with a little crunchy seas salt and toss the whole salad.

EAT. SMILE. EAT SOME MORE.

heirloom tomato and celery salad.

The first of  summer's tomatoes have arrived at the markets. Green Market stalls are  filled with piles of gorgeous and unusually shaped heirlooms in purples, stripes, blacks, whites, deep reds, orange and yellows. I love the wabi sabi-ness of heirloom tomatoes. I particularly like the ones that look as though they have been carelessly stitched and scratched like a beautiful Lousie Bourgeois sculpture. 

Tomatoes are one of those foods that are in my blood. If I were on a deserted island I  could get by if I had stockpiles of my great grandmothers marinara sauce.  When I think about the things I love to eat most... they almost always involve this diverse fruit! Foccacia with cherry tomatoes sunk deep into little wells of crunchy bread and pools of olive oil...marinara with a punch of garlic and hint of basil, Panzanella a delicious bread salad, a BLT with a  thick chunky slice of  a fresh garden tomato, tomato soup and grilled cheese, the ultimate in comfort food or a very simple summer salad of tomato and basil, olive oil and a little sea salt or in this case some crisp shaved celery. Just give me a piece of crusty Italian bread to soak up that juice and I will be in heaven!

More tomato love to come 

 Heirloom Tomato and Celery Salad (for two)

This is sort of a non-recipe. It is just an inspiration! As with most summer salads they just kind of get thrown together!

4 large heirloom tomatoes

1 stalk of celery with leaves

A handful of fresh basil

Really good olive oil

Sea salt

Cut the tomatoes into pieces and put in a large bowl

Shave the celery stalk into ultra thin slices with a mandolin and scatter on top of the tomatoes

Tear the celery leaf and basil into small pieces and add to the salad

Add a pinch of really good crunchy sea salt

Douse with an extra virgin olive oil 

Toss and Devour!

As simple as that and DO NOT forget some crusty bread lest you waste that amazing tomato juice!