I love salads and in our home we have quite a few favorite recipes. Salads are healthy, tasty and can range from simple and elegant to hearty and nearly a meal in itself.

Over the next two posts I’m giving you two of my favorite recipes. Salads can be a starter for a multi-course dinner or just an awesome side dish with your favorite meal. Our first salad, the Provolone and Tomato salad, has only a handful of simple ingredients but is a refreshing change from lettuce based salads.

The Super Simple Provolone and Fresh Tomato Salad

What You Will Need:

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 to 4 fresh basil leaves, very finely chopped
1 package (approximately 8 slices) provolone cheese
4 vine ripened (or fresh is even better) tomatoes
Fresh cracked black pepper
Kosher or sea salt

Pour the olive oil into a small container and add the finely chopped basil leaves. Allow to sit and infuse for a minimum of three hours at room temperature.

When you’re ready to assemble the salads cut the provolone slices into quarters and slice the tomatoes into ¼ inch slices. On a small salad plate place a quartered slice of the provolone cheese onto the very edge of the plate. Next lay a slice of tomato on the plate, allowing it to overlap the provolone. Alternate this pattern—cheese slice/tomato slice—until you have four slices of each on the plate. Drizzle the basil infused olive oil on top of the tomato and cheese slices. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

I’d also like to take a minute to talk about ingredients. As you may know a dish is only as good as the ingredients you use to create it. I’m a big fan of using the freshest ingredients possible as you just can’t beat the flavor. This salad recipe just isn’t the same with dried basil and flavorless tomatoes from the supermarket. Fresh is always best!

If possible I highly encourage you to grow your own basic herbs and tomatoes. By planting even 1 basil, 1 thyme, 1 rosemary and one tomato plant you can make dishes with flavors so fresh you won’t know how you ever lived without them.

For those without a green thumb check out this instantly downloadable ebook filled with gardening secrets that will have you the envy of all your neighbors.

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