Cherry Tomato Salad with Red Onions & Parsley

As you may have guessed from my previous post, I love tomatoes. They're not usually ready until the middle of June or the beginning of July, though, so it's always challenging (and often disgusting) to make food with tomatoes in the cooler months. The solution is sometimes canned tomatoes, such as in sauces. It's sometimes sun dried  tomatoes, such as in salads. When you just need fresh tomatoes, however, the solution is generally cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, or teardrop tomatoes. The smaller varieties have much more concentrated flavor, come from reliable sources in large quantities, and are always delicious.
It's become more and more common at grocery stores and farmers' markets to carry heirloom varieties of smaller tomatoes. I cannot recommend more highly that you try these unique little treasures. You can find purple, striped, green, yellow, orange... any color and flavor of tomato you can imagine. Try this recipe with the standards you'll find in the grocery --  but it's really designed to stand out with the special tomatoes that you only find when you really look.

Tomato Salad
Serves 6
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: None

• 2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, or small heirloom tomatoes (about 2 lbs)*
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this is the place for your best stuff)
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (see above)
• salt and pepper to taste

Carefully slice each tomato in half. Toss with the onion, parsley, oil, and vinegar. Taste for seasonings.
Add salt and pepper to your desired taste. Serve at room temperature.

*Never refrigerate tomatoes. It changes the texture and flavor more than you will realize. I know lots of people say it helps them keep longer, but this is not really true. They may look fine on the outside, but they're mushier inside even after a few hours in the fridge and will never taste the same again.