Salad Days

Cherry tomatoes straight off the vine are absolutely divine - sweet little bursts of flavor. If your plants are producing a bumper crop (or you visit the garden of Costco), give this salad a try. The trick to keeping this salad from getting soggy is to salt the tomatoes and spin them in a salad spinner.

Greek Cherry Tomato Salad

4 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
table salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ried oregano, or 1 1/2 tsp fresh oregano
1 shallot, minced
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
ground black pepper
1 small cucumber , peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/2 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
4 ounces feta cheese , crumbled (about 1 cup)
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves

Toss tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and sugar in medium bowl; let stand for 30 minutes. Transfer tomatoes to salad spinner and spin until seeds and excess liquid have been removed, 45 to 60 seconds, stirring to redistribute tomatoes several times during spinning. Return tomatoes to bowl and set aside. Strain tomato liquid through fine-mesh strainer into liquid measuring cup, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible.

Bring 1/2 cup tomato liquid (discard any extra), garlic, oregano, shallot, and vinegar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until reduced to 3 tablespoons, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to small bowl and cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Whisk in oil and pepper to taste until combined. Taste and season with up to 1/8 teaspoon table salt.

Add cucumber, olives, feta, dressing, and parsley to bowl with tomatoes; toss gently and serve.