Recipe by Mackenzie Smith

The plan was to make some fourteen dishes to feature in our tomato supper with JBG a few months ago, but my pup got sick and had to be taken to the ER the day of, all while I was supposed to be prepping for the meal. Hours of prep time were lost as I was thinking more about my dog than I was about dinner. Those fourteen dishes quickly turned into about 8. Frazzled, I showed up to Van’s house with plenty of the ingredients for the dishes I opted not to make, and set out to finish the dishes that I knew I could pull off in time. On the “cutting room floor” of the larger list was a tomato, avocado and cucumber salad served atop a swoosh of labne, a riff on Cheryl Sternman Rule’s delicious recipe from her book, Yogurt Culture. I had the labne, but the cucumbers were sitting pretty in my refrigerator back home.

Photo by Rick Cortez.

I had made Short Stack Editions' tomato vinaigrette the night before, so when Ada asked what she could do to help, I told her to cut up the tomato and peaches and put them in a bowl together (7 other dishes on the backburner, Nadia’s cocktails flowing freely and dear friends showing up every 10 minutes). I tossed them in the vinaigrette, schmeared one of Van’s beautiful old platters with a giant serving-spoonful of labne, and covered it with the tomato peach mixture before sprinkling with a handful of basil, parsley and mint.

My plan for this dish was to use Short Stack’s recipe for tomato & peach salad with tomato vinaigrette in their big book, but that recipe says to “arrange the tomatoes and peaches in a single, interspersed layer. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the fruit.” Ha, single layer? Drizzle? I guess I lost those instructions somewhere on that cutting room floor. This was a pile of summer’s most precious gems, macerated in a perfect dressing and swooshed around with tangy labne and a hunk of sourdough from Easy Tiger. Both takes on this salad will taste like Summer on a plate, so long as you buy the ingredients at their peak.

• 2 pounds of mixed heirloom tomatoes, slices crosswise, ½ inch thick
• 3 ripe peaches, pitted and sliced into ¼-inch-thick wedges
• ½ cup Tomato Vinaigrette
• 12 medium basil leaves, torn
• 1-2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped mint
• Course sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup of labne (plain greek yogurt works just as well here)

Photo by Rick Cortez.

Short Stack Editions Tomato Vinaigrette (double this recipe and use in on your summer produce all week! It is so good!)

• ½ cup diced ripe tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and let them sit for an hour. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and process until smooth.

Mix tomatoes, peaches and vinaigrette together. On a large platter, spread the labne with the back of a big spoon so the middle of the platter is empty, leaving a tiny wall of labne to receive the salad. Spoon the salad on the platter and top with herbs. Serve with crusty sourdough.

Photo by Rick Cortez.