Viva La Revolution
Chuck Hayes, Newborn, Georgia - garliclover101@gmail.com
For the past few years now, under the radar, America has been going through a change in how it views food. It is called the Slow Food Movement (www.slowfood.com). In essence it involves a mindset of “EAT SEASONALLY. BUY LOCALLY”. It is a grassroots backlash to all of the processed chemical laden food being pushed down our gullet not only as a country, but as a world. Food producers as well as mass farming operations use every conceivable chemical they can to extend the shelf life of EVERYTHING that we come into contact with. Don’t want brown spots on your apples----got a chemical for that! You want your meat to stay red for weeks on end----got a gas for that! The second benefit to buying locally produced foods is the harm that it does to our environment to ship all of these goods half way around the world. And don’t even mention the price of fuel these days to put a Columbian peach on a Newborn, Georgia table.
Below is a recipe to help us start our journey towards a more socially conscious existence using vine ripened Georgia grown tomatoes (you should be able to find the cheese and basil at your local Kroger).
TOMATO BASIL MOZZARELLA SALAD
Ingredients
• 1 Large vine ripe tomato at room temperature
• 5 basil leaves
• 2 Tb extra virgin olive oil (the fruitier the better---green tint may be an indication)
• 1 ball of FRESH mozzarella (Not the pizza cheese kind. Fresh mozzarella is packed in salted water)
• Few good pinches of sea salt or kosher salt
Directions
Cut tomato into 1/4” slices. Do the same with the mozzarella. On a plate alternate layers of tomato and cheese—fan them in a line down the plate. Drizzle olive oil across the top of tomato’s/cheese. Sprinkle your sea salt (works nice here because there is no metallic taste like iodized salt—plus the salty crunch is refreshing). Chiffinade* the basil and sprinkle atop your glorious composed salad .
* (To chiffinade basil, take thoroughly washed basil leaves and stack the leaves on top of one another so that the edges line up evenly. Roll the stack of leaves lengthwise to resemble a cigar. Thinly slice crosswise to create thin ribbons of basil).
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