August is my favorite month to eat. Summer produce at its peak means cooking is barely necessary (which is especially great because it leaves more energy for canning projects). This dinner was almost no effort, but admittedly after a long day back at work after vacation no canning projects were even attempted. Inspiration came from the list of 101 simple salads published by Mark Bittman in the New York Times 5 whole years ago(!). The combinations are awesome and overwhelming, and I love how he says in a few cucumber recipes: ‘if they’re fat and old, peel and seed them first” (poor old fat cukes!). Putting peaches and tomatoes together is just genius, and it is dinner served with bread topped with mashed avocado, salt, and pepper (the rest of that loaf is destined for panzanella once it is nice and stale).

Peach and Tomato Salad

Dinner sized salads for 2, side salads for 4

• 2 peaches or nectarines
• 2 large tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of thinly sliced red onion (I used 1/4 of a large one)
• juice of 1 lime or half a lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley)
• 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes (optional, but awesome)
• Salt and pepper

Pit the stone fruit and slice into thin wedges. Slice the tomatoes into wedges of the same thickness. Put them both in a bowl with the red onion, then dress with the citrus juice, olive oil, herbs, chili flakes, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine.