Tomato Pesto Salad

Late season tomatoes are almost gone- so sad to wait until next year for off the vine fresh 'maters. Enjoy one or two for lunch with this recipe that utilizes the last of your fresh basil as well.

Tomato Pesto Salad
Per serving:
1-2 tomatoes, thickly  sliced
1/2 ounce shaved Romano cheese
1 tbs pesto (see hints)
1 1/2 tbs white balsamic vinegar
1/2 tbs pine nuts
Arrange tomato on a plate. Top with Romano cheese. Whisk pesto and vinegar together and spoon on top of tomato and cheese. Sprinkle with pine nuts to serve.

Hints: Pesto-- If you have a food processor, you can make your own fresh pesto with a couple of handfuls of basil and walnuts and about 3 ounces of Romano cheese. With the blade running, pour in extra virgin olive oil until you have a paste. Add some salt to taste and more olive oil to reach desired consistency. This will keep in the fridge for a week or more and is great on pasta, pizza, sandwiches, etc.
For the salad-- If you don't have white balsamic vinegar use regular balsamic - it will just be a darker dressing but will taste pretty similar. Also, using parmesan rather than Romano is fine- (I just like Romano so much better than parmesan). I keep my tomatoes unrefrigerated so that their flavor sings clearly. Of course, the higher quality the ingredients in this salad, the better it will be.

I think of family whenever I have a tomato. Dad had tomato plants every year. Warm summer evenings on the patio with sliced Ace or Better Boy tomatoes accompanying whatever was for dinner are blessed memories. And then there were Moms lunches of grilled tomato sandwiches made with Wonder bread and Miracle Whip. Or eating sun warmed pear tomatoes right off the vine on Sunday afternoon with my kids. Family makes food taste best.