horiatiki, a greek tomato salad with thinly sliced red onion and green bell pepper in a dressing of balsamic, olive oil, and feta cheese

 
I love Greek salad. I love Greek food. Maybe it's the spices, maybe it's the vast quantities of olive oil, maybe it's the memories of skipping about local Greek culture festivals with souvlaki in one hand and a bowl of loukoumades in the other. Two sweltering, delicious weeks in Greece helped, too, I imagine.

In my family, when we make a salad for dinner, it never involves lettuce. If I went to the store and bought a bag of iceburg lettuce or romaine, my mother would look at me funny when I walked back in with it. (Spinach is a frequent guest at our table, but always cooked, in omelettes or lightly sauted with balsamic vinegar and sesame seeds). When we say "salad" we mean Greek salad: a tasty bowl of ripe juicy tomatoes, sliced cucumber, kalamata olives, and crumbled feta cheese.A splash (or sprinkle, or half cup full, depending on which family member you are) of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and we're a happy little nuclear unit.

I wasn't surprised to find (but probably should've been) that our salad is surprisingly authentic. In Greece, the "peasant/village/country salad," horiatiki, contains tomatoes, cucumbers, thinly sliced red onions, bell pepper, olives, and feta. There are various adaptions (an addition of cracked bulgar wheat in Cyprus, for example).

I was excited: ancient Greek cuisine on our table! But then I realized that while olives and feta are about as Greek as you get, tomatoes and bell peppers are native to South America. It doesn't make it any less delicious, or any less common in Greece now, but it is something to think about.

Tomatoes were introduced to the Old World as early as 1493 by Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus), though some argue Cortez was the source. They were eaten widely in France and Spain, though the English, on the word of barber/surgeon John Gerard, were convinced they were poison. (The leaves and stem are). The plant grows readily in Mediterranean climate and spread throughout the region. Sometime in the next five hundred years, horiatiki got its tomatoes. For this, in my house, we are very glad.


Horiatiki (Greek Tomato Salad)
3 heirloom tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small cucumber, diced
1/4 C crumbled feta cheese
kalamata olives
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

All of these ingredient measurements should really be "to taste." In my house, you up the tomatoes, olives, and cucumber, and you leave the feta, onions, oil, and vinegar out of lil sister' bowl entirely.

How to construct the salad? Put all ingredients in a bowl. Mix. Serve. (Often, we leave out the serving bowl entirely and just mix the ingredients directly in four dinner bowls, as everyone has their own preferences.)