Garden Tomato + Peach Salad with Ricotta Cheese

Vine ripe garden tomatoes + farm peaches + ricotta cheese + fresh harbs = a garden fresh salad to please any crowd.

Tis the season for vine ripe tomatoes and the perfect peach! Together with ricotta cheese and fresh basil leaves, the ideal fall garden salad is created!

While living in utah, my mother has this great garden…mostly full of tomato plants AND herbs. It is a newer garden you could say so–we are so happy with the many tomatoes and herbs!

Jude and Theo make that their sole duty. To go out and check the garden. Mostly he takes the designated wicker basket, clothed in his jammies, slipped on his birkenstock’s and gloved with any gloves he can find.

Theo will be at his side….in slightly the opposite attire. Most likely just a diaper, no shoes, a much smaller basket filled with some ‘friends’ (his plastic animals or guys) and no gloves.

They are quite the pair.

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Anyway, it is becoming fall and therefore our fresh herbs and tomatoes won’t be producing for much longer! ah! So we need to store them the most efficiently as we can!

STORING HERBS:

I have read many articles which outline different ways to store fresh herbs. My favorite article that I found most helpful is from Eating Well. For a great way to cut your herbs and a really cute little boy check out Jude’s tuesday tip on cutting herbs HERE.

Here are a few of my chosen ways-

#1: Drying herbs

-dehydrate or heat in a 200 degree oven for 2-4 hours until dry and crumbly. Then store in an empty spice jar.

#2: Freezing herbs

-before you try this method, don’t forget to blanch them so they don’t turn brown.

#3: An herbed salt

-after washed and dried thoroughly, once mixed with salt, it can last up to 1 year! Just an extra kick to any salad or soup or meal.

ok, so now for the herby ingredients for this fall peach salad.

INGREDIENTS:

• farm peaches
  • my personal favorites are FREE STONE peaches. No, I shouldn’t say favorite…I mean i’m really slightly snobby when it comes to clingstone. They just aren’t worth the extra heachache…ya know?!
• ricotta cheese
  • my sweet mother used to think that we could just substitute fat free cottage cheese but soon realized that nothing can replace a good, fresh ricotta for this salad. It’s the texture and the taste- yum!
• vipe ripe, garden tomatoes
  • Nothing beats a tomato that YOU get to pick right off the vine. And if you can’t do that, then drive or walk to your nearest farmers market and get a GARDEN heirloom tomato! I am actually not a fan of regular tomatoes with the stickers on them from the store. In fact, I won’t eat them. [yikes, I sound like a real peice of work]
  • I really like garden tomatoes and the store bought ones just taste so much different-I can’t.
• fresh herbs
  • we have used both mint AND basil. Both work so well and just up the taste of the salad by 10 fold. If you don’t have either- go and get yourself a basil plant! They are so fun to have around!
• salt and pepper to taste

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