Farmer's Market Tomato salad with homemade ricotta salata

OK, so I was a little impatient with the cheese. It seemed like it had sweated enough moisture, so I rinsed the rind, dried it well, and rubbed it down with herbs d'provence (minus the lavender). Then it was supposed to age for a couple of weeks. It didn't get the chance.

I stumbled across the Reston Farmer's Market today and got some really beautiful produce from a grower named Jose; big red and yellow heirloom tomatoes, bell and long peppers in red, yellow, green and orange, and some nice sweet onions. I simply sliced the tomatoes, then grilled and sliced the peppers and onions. Everything got tossed with the simplest balsamic vinaigrette ever and then plopped onto a bed of baby spinach. On top of this beautiful pile went fresh ground pepper, basil and parsley chiffonade and half of my wheel of homemade riccotta salata sliced thinly.

The cheese itself turned out like a slightly creamy feta. When I sliced it to top the salad, about 3/4 of the sliced were perfect slices and the rest became crumbles. It has enough body that it is still nice and firm after being dumped into tupperware for storage (I have been picking at the salad as I write this). Since this is a salted cheese, I did not use any additional salt with the salad and it was perfectly seasoned.

This is one of those dishes that probably tasted even better to me for psychological reasons. It was made with ingredients that are in season, grown locally by an independent farmer, and accented with a complex ingredient made by hand in this very house. That kind of pushes all of my buttons. Having said all that, I would still have loved this if it were served to me at a restaurant. The tomatoes were revelatory, the peppers and onions smoky from the grill and the cheese made a nice salty, creamy accent to the whole bowl of Summer goodness.

The next time I try a cheese I think I need it to be not so thin. Because the wheel I did was very wide and thin, I think it allowed the salt to permeate more of the cheese. Not bad for a salad cheese, but could be an issue for a "cheese and crackers" cheese. Other than that, GREAT SUCCESS!

Now I need to get some Chevre culture. I met some nice young Mennonite gentlemen who can get me some whole goat milk next Wednesday.......