Tomato Tart and Watermelon Salad

Melon Salad

Nahid and I are getting ready to set the menu for our next Underground Supper Club. We are testing out recipes this week and next.  Since the Supper Club will be in July we want to make sure to include as many items from the Hollywood Farmers’ Market as possible.

We were toying with watermelon, and why not?  Nothing says summer like watermelon.  Alas, should it be an amuse bouche or another course?  We ran it by Rick last weekend and he liked it, thought it could be a hit, but wasn’t wowed and, let’s face it, we want wow.

This got us to thinking that the fig/parmesan cracker is always “oh-ed” and “ah-ed” over so why not make that our calling card as long as figs are in season?  Amuse bouche problem solved but what about the melon?

Picture Courtesy of Louise Mellor

So we’re back to the drawing board using watermelon as our canvas.  We bounced around a watermelon feta salad.  Standard, approachable, yes but could we make it special?   Game on.

Next our attention moved to the tart course.  Our guests waxed poetic about the blue cheese tart, so the bar is set very high.  So of course I went to my “go to” girl, Suzanne Goin.  I simply love her approach to food.  AOC was ground breaking when it first opened.  Lucques never seemed to fail, plus her Sunday prix fix dinners are legend.  We decided on her tomato tart.  I think what intrigued us was that it had no cheese and we wanted to see if her claim, “this tart doesn’t need cheese” was true.

I invited a friend over for a taste trial.  Alyson is a burgeoning foodie photographer.  So we wanted to get together for a chat and bite.  Alyson stepped in behind the camera to take the photos.  I told Alyson that it was a watermelon salad, but her brain kept saying tomato salad.  That is until she tasted it.  She couldn’t believe how well the watermelon, feta and red onions worked, the addition of the peppery watercress was the perfect green…She also loved the tart.

Photo Courtesy of Alyson Granaderos

Photo Courtesy of Alyson Granaderos

Melon Salad for 4

1/4 seedless watermelon

1/2 red onion sliced very thin

1/4 lbs hard feta

1/4 lemon juiced and micro planed

1/2 bunch watercress

salt and pepper

1. Cut watermelon into small squares
2. Place watermelon into a bowl.  Add red onions, lemon juice and rind.
3. Crumble feta into bowl.
4. Toss add salt and pepper.
5. Spread watercress on plate, pile watermelon on top.
6. Eat