Tomato, olive and avocado fresh summer salad

My dad’s field is full of gorgeous bright red tomatoes this year..there are so many….buckets of them so we are making tomato sauce almost every day to avoid wasting them.

This year the season for tomatoes has been particularly good compared to last year’s and they are so juicy and delicious. What’s best is that they are totally organic.

At lunch time we often have spelt (farro) pasta with tomato sauce, olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan. This is followed by more fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. Sometimes the tomatoes are so large that you only need one to make a sauce for 4 people!

For dinner last night I made a salad with tomatoes, basil, avocado, olives and capers and I served it with fish. What you need is some fresh perfumed basil to lift this dish. Our basil is thriving in the summer sunshine!

This salad serves 2 people.

• Prep Time : 20 minutes

Ingredients

• fresh ripe tomatoes – 400 g + 2 cups
• avocado – 1
• shallot or small onion – 1 small
• basil leaves – handful
• olives – handful
• capers – 1 tbsp
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Chop the tomatoes into cubes, sprinkle them with salt then put them in a colander for 15 minutes to drain the excess liquid.

Peel and cut the avocado into cubes and chop the onion finely.

Tear the basil leaves and keep a few aside for decoration. Chop the olives too.

Put all the tomatoes in a bowl and add the onion, the avocado, the basil, the olives, the capers, a grind of pepper and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Mix well.

Put a pastry cutter in the middle of a serving dish or if you don’t have one you can make one up by folding a sheet of tinfoil.

Remove the ring and serve the salad with a drizzle of olive oil. Garnish with basil leaves.