Fingerling potatoes and cherry tomatoes tossed with a lively mustard vinaigrette—something this easy shouldn’t taste this good. Recipe below.
Summer is drawing to a close—we have a real blanket on the bed, we are wearing sweaters in the evening, and we are casting around for ways to use the bits and bobs that we harvest here from our apartment garden. The nation’s corn crop may have gone to hell this year, but our tomato crop is record-breaking. Outside, we have just a tiny scrap of ground under cultivation, but it is giving us a quart of cherry tomatoes every day, on bad days—and that is to ignore the big tomatoes, which are coming in with a vengeance.
And friends, I have also figured out how to beat the local squirrels. It’s been years of frustration, featuring comical shots of me, in various inappropriate garments, yelling even more inappropriate things at squirrels as they frisk up ahead with fat ripe red tomatoes in their clever jaws. But, because every year I rotate a different tomato variety into the mix, I stumbled on an answer: yellow. In our neighborhood, the squirrels do not recognize yellow tomatoes as food. Red tomatoes, yes. Peppers, berries, French fries, apples, yes. But yellow tomatoes, for no reason I understand, are safe. This year I threw the dice and planted only yellow varieties, and now we have a bumper crop, small and large, pear-shaped and round, all of them luscious, well-balanced explosions of acid and sweet, and not one meddling squirrel has touched them. Not. one.
Victory.
We thought of this recipe on the fly as part of a recent weekend barbecue. We’ve got tomatoes! We’ve got potatoes! We’ve got 30 minutes! It’s one of those dishes that is so simple, it is almost not a recipe, but a description.
Potato and Cherry Tomato Salad
Serves four to six
30 fingerling potatoes, mixed red and white
a pint of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
chives
For the vinaigrette:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
Wash the little tomatoes and cut them in half. Our version uses Sun Gold tomatoes, our favorite, but use the ones you like best. A mix of little heirlooms, red, yellow, purple, would be very handsome.
Make the vinaigrette by whisking all the ingredients together in a small bowl. Set it aside.
Choose fingerling potatoes that are all about the same size, nice unbruised ones without eyes. Don’t peel them. Put them in a pan, cover generously with cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer for five to seven minutes, depending on the size, until they are just tender.
When they are cooked, drain them and plunge into cold water for a minute so you can handle them. Cut each in half lengthwise and place in a medium bowl.
Pour the dressing over the potatoes—use just enough to coat the potatoes, not so much that it pools in the bottom of the bowl. Save any extra dressing for another salad.
Set aside a few tomato halves for garnish. Carefully pour the rest into the potato salad bowl, and very gently fold everything together.
Garnish with the remaining tomatoes, snip some chives over the salad and serve. That’s it.
This is also really wonderful the next day, cold from the fridge.
Kitchen Notes
Curse them varmints: Yes, I know this yellow tomato thing may not work in your area, and I also know that eventually these little creatures are going to figure it out. But it’s working now. A year’s respite? I’ll take it.
It is no wonder squirrels do not want yellow tomatoes, even I didn’t believe they were ripe when I first met them.
It is good to know, though!
I read someplace else that yellow tomatoes just don’t attract squirrels. More evidence is always persuasive. We’re not yet at sweater weather here in St. Louis, but I know it’s coming (my favorite weather of the year, actually). Anyway, great salad – lots of flavor, good nutrition, easy to make, etc etc. Really nice – thanks.
I usually make creamy potato salads so this would be a nice change and I like the addition of the cherry tomatoes!
Congratulations on winning the squirrel victory! Little buggers…
But squirrels are so cuuuuute.
(you would have been disappointed had nobody said it… right?)
Very makeable for me – tomatoes seem to be doing OK this year here, too. I’ll use purple-skinned potatoes from a local grower.
Zeeoana, when I first tried yellow tomatoes. I was totally prepared to dislike them. My idea of the perfect tomato was, and still is, the deep red old-fashioned kind with the top that tends to crack. But it was a delightful surprise to find so many flavorful yellow tomatoes. And I recommend trying several varieties in the garden, not just one, because some varieties just taste bland. Experiment around!
kitchenriffs, thank you. Overnight it’s become warm again here, although it definitely does not feel like summer any longer. It’s that up-and-gradually-down time. I agree, autumn is the best part of year.
randi, for years I never, ever made vinaigrette-based potato salads, to the point where whenever I had one someone else had made, I felt cheated. Got way over that.
Chowgirl, oh, the many stories we have, most of them ending with a squirrel chattering in a tree and something ruined. I wonder if there are bloggers who only write about the evil of squirrels?
Anita, true that. Thank you for stepping up! Squirrels are so adorable looking and flirt around those tails so much that we expect them to be biddable and sweet, and instead they are this unending march of Monkey Kings continuously messing with your stuff. Continuously.
Mimi, it really is the simplest recipe and I think would be great with purple potatoes. Let us know how you like it!