Spencer Huey just picked his first tomato of the season, a shiny red pearl from a backyard vine.
His spoon tomatoes ripened early because they’re so small. The rest of his harvest in the Bay Area, where he lives and works as a cook at Chez Panisse, has more time to go. “Things,” he said, “are just starting.”
That’s because late summer, true tomato season, is still nigh, which means it’s time to talk about fresh tomato recipes. Part of summer’s draw is the inching toward that first tomato, prepared with pomp and circumstance — and knife and cutting board.
Most people start off with a proper tomato sandwich, a contentious subject between Southerners and Northerners, who both claim it, or sugo di pomodoro, my dad’s favorite pasta sauce, a fleeting annual dream that’s only ever as good as the tomato.
“A tomato is precious,” Mr. Huey said. Each red orb is a major win.
When the fruit is bulging, its skin about to burst under the weight of juice, and the anticipation for that first sip of true summer is at a seasonal high, only a salad will do.
Right around now, at least once a day, Mr. Huey makes himself a salad. When the tomato is this good, it doesn’t take much: just salt, pepper and olive oil; a little acid from lemon juice or red wine vinegar; an herb or three, all plated nicely, differently, depending on the day.
When I think of summer tomatoes, I think of birthdays. I’m a late-July baby, and when I was growing up, my mother, Jean, hosted intimate birthday parties for me at the pool or in our backyard. She’d throw down platters of hamburgers, panels of American cheese, jars of pickles and relish and ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise (the palette of summer). And, for the adults, the salad was a plate piled high with thick slices of beefsteak tomato and white onion, which she whipped up between the kitchen and the outside table, where a handful of sensitive Cancer types gathered before a dip in the pool.
Most of us kids didn’t touch those, but I did. The recipe here is a homage to those early birthdays, when there was a grown-up hosting a party for you. This iteration calls for a flavorful doenjang vinaigrette, reminiscent of the Worcestershire-laden, umami-rich steak sauce that Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn serves with its tomato and onion salad.
A good tomato doesn’t need much more, but the bitter-savory aroma of fresh perilla leaves is unmatched here, offsetting the sweetness of the fruit, onion and doenjang. Perilla’s sister-in-law, mint, is a fantastic alternative.
Enjoy this quick, refreshing salad alongside a richer main dish, such as grilled steak, pork or chicken. Or do as Mr. Huey does and have it on its own — a celebration unto itself.
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