Tower salad – with tomato, sheep’s cheese and an arugula pesto
In recent years, we had the opportunity to travel a lot in different countries and try their culinary specialties. We had really delicious things to eat, but one thing I can say for sure – the Bulgarian tomatoes are the best. Neither in Spain, Italy nor France, nor even in neighboring Greece tomatoes have this rich taste. We will use such tomatoes for our Tower salad.
The recipe occurred to me when the tomatoes in our garden matured. This is the time of the year when the main dish at home is salads. Tower salad resembles Italian Caprese, but with ingredients typical of Bulgarian cuisine.
Ingredients for one Tower salad:
- 1 large tomato, peeled
- 100 g homemade sheep cheese
For arugula pesto:
- 1 bunch arugula
- 1 bunch of parsley
- clove garlic
- sea salt to taste
- 30 g parmesan
- 50 ml of olive oil
- 50 g of walnuts
Put all ingredients for the pesto in a blender. With a few spins of the knife you will have an aromatic home-made pesto. Peel the tomato and cut it into a 1.5-2 cm large slices. Cut the cheese into pieces of the same thickness. Remove the bottom of the tomato to have a firm base, and keep the lid for the beautiful end of the salad. Alternate slices of tomato and cheese and pour into them with pesto.
When serving, sprinkle with some more olive oil and sprinkle with herbs and spices such as basil leaves, mint, thyme, arugula, savory, lavender and whatever else you have beautiful and tasty in the garden.
