Watermelon Salad With Tomatoes and Onion

There is nothing that says summer more than watermelon.

As a kid, it was one of my favorite desserts.  We would eat the thick, juicy slices, dripping the sticky, pink juice all over our shirts, shorts, legs and whatever else got in the line of fire.  (I have dim memories of a garden hose being used for clean-up—wish I could do that now sometimes after a big family dinner.  Oooh.  Or a firehose.  That would definitely make clean-up easier!)

Watermelon was also a staple in the mixed fruit salad that we ate as we got older and didn’t particularly want to be hosed off after a meal.  And  I even remember taking a whack at carving a watermelon into a basket once upon a time.

This salad is a grown-up version of a watermelon course.

Ingredients:

• watermelon 
• tomatoes of any kind, but I prefer yellow for the color contrast with the watermelon.
• red onions
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

I purposely am not giving measurements here because this is really a “throw-together” salad.  You can go as big or as small as you want.  It is more about the flavor combinations than the amounts.

For the Pesto: This pesto has a hint of mint, but you can just go with regular pesto if you prefer, or you can skip the pest altogether and just put some chopped basil on top of the watermelon/tomato mixture

• 1/2 cup packed mint leaves
• 1/4 cup basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon slivered almonds
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions :

1. Make the pesto in a high speed blender: Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.  You may need a bit more olive oil if your pesto is too thick, but you should add it by teaspoonfuls or else the pesto can get too thin.
2. Put 1/2 cup of the balsamic vinegar into a small pot and cook over medium high heat until it is reduced (thick and syrupy), stirring occasionally. Don’t overcook or it will become the LaBrea tarpit of your kitchen and you might lose a spoon in there…or a small child.  Let it cool,  (This can be done ahead of time.)
3. Cut the tomato and watermelon into chunks.  Thinly slice or dice a red onion.
4. Put the tomato and watermelon on a plate and scatter the onion over them.
5. Now you have a choice to make:  You can either “paint” some of the balsamic vinegar on a plate with a pastry brush and scatter the watermelon, onions and tomato on top of it, then drizzle with pesto, or you can put some pesto on the plate first, top with the watermelon, tomato and onion and drizzle with the vinegar.  Third option is to put the tomato, onion and watermelon on the plate and drizzle both the pesto and balsamic on top.  Can’t go wrong any way you do it.

Enjoy!