Peak Summer Tomato & Burrata Salad

There's a two-week window every summer where tomatoes stop being an ingredient and start being the whole point. This is the recipe for that window. No cooking, no oven, no cleverness required; just heirlooms at their peak, a torn ball of burrata, and a heavy hand with Summer Vine seasoning. Five minutes, one plate, and the kind of dish people ask you about a week later.

• Yield: 2 as a main, 4 as a starter
• Time: 15 minutes (10 of them unattended)
• Storage Notes: Eat immediately. Tomatoes wait for no one.
• Difficulty: Very Easy

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs ripe heirloom tomatoes, as many colors as you can find
• 1 ball fresh burrata, at room temperature
• About 5 Tbs Summer Vine: All Purpose Tomato Salad Seasoning
• About 3 Tbs Good extra virgin olive oil, the grassy peppery kind
• Aged balsamic vinegar, thick enough to leave a trail
• A generous handful of fresh basil leaves
• A Hunk of Crusty bread

DIRECTIONS

1. Slice the larger tomatoes into thick rounds: a half inch, no thinner. Quarter or halve the smaller ones. You want varied shapes and varied bite. Uniformity is the enemy here.
2. Season and wait. Lay the cut tomatoes on a plate or shallow platter and dust them generously with about half of the Summer Vine. Walk away for 10 minutes. This is the only real technique in the whole recipe: the seasoning pulls juice out of the tomatoes, that juice dissolves the garlic, onion, basil, lemon zest, and cheese in the blend, and what pools at the bottom of the plate becomes the dressing. You didn't make a vinaigrette. The tomatoes made it for you.
3. Build the plate. Arrange the tomatoes so the colors land next to each other, then tear the burrata open directly over the center and let it fall where it wants. Torn, not sliced: you want the cream to run into the tomato juice.
4. Finish hard. A slow spiral of olive oil over everything. A few dark ribbons of aged balsamic. Tear the basil by hand and scatter. Then one more pinch of Summer Vine across the burrata itself, because the blend against the plain cream is the best bite on the plate.
5. Serve it immediately, with bread, and devour.

NOTES & VARIATIONS

No burrata? Fresh mozzarella, torn the same way, or a thick smear of whipped ricotta underneath the tomatoes instead of on top.

Make it dinner. Spoon the whole thing over grilled sourdough rubbed with garlic, or fold it through warm orecchiette with a splash of the pasta water.

Make it a drink situation. The seasoning on the rim of a Bloody Mary is a genuinely excellent use of a Tuesday.

Peaches. Swap in a third peach for a third of the tomatoes. Trust us.

The applications from here are endless: eggs, grilled zucchini, roasted potatoes, a bare avocado, a piece of fish that needs a personality. But start here, on a plate, in August, while the tomatoes are still worth it.