Day 1 of Corona Virus self-isolation and I have a LOT of tomatoes in the fridge. Luckily, I also have a bunch of fresh basil and some other pantry staples. So, with my new found time, I thought I’d create a super simple, bright, fresh & zingy tomato and basil salad to boost immunity & wake me up!

Ingredients

• Lots of tomatoes, big small, yellow, orange, red, get em all!
• A big bunch of fresh basil
• One large clove of garlic
• Half a fresh lemon
• 1 large green chilli (if you like a bit of spice, you can add as much or little as you like)
• Two tablespoons of pine nuts
• Truffle Oil (you can purchase in most supermarkets or specialist food outlets; but don’t skimp on this ingredient, it’s what the happy recipients of this salad will be mmm-ing & ahhr-ing over!)
• Extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Equipment

• Small non-stick frying pan
• Food processor/blender
• Large, shallow serving plate

Method

• First things first, slice up all of your tomatoes and lay them on the big, flat serving plate, seasoning generously with salt and pepper (tomatoes & salt are BEST friends; go hard).
• Pull a very generous handful of basil leaves from the bunch, peel the clove of garlic, juice the half of lemon and de-seed the green chilli.
• Grab your food processor and throw in all the ingredients prepped in Step 2 along with 4 tablespoons of olive oil (remember, only add as much chilli as you like, or none at all!)
• Blitz until super smooth. The consistency should be like slightly watery pesto. If it’s too think (unable to pour/drizzle) add another tablespoon of olive oil and blitz again. Keep going until you have correct consistency.

• Drizzle the contents of the blender all over the tomatoes.
• Chuck the pine nuts into the (dry) frying pan (don’t add oil or anything else, they shouldn’t stick) and dry fry until you can start to smell them/they start to brown.
• Sprinkle the pine nuts over the tomatoes.
• Finish by scattering some additional fresh basil leaves over the top, equally dispersed single drops of truffle oil (not too much, it’s potent stuff), salt and pepper.
• Serve as a side dish or, like I did, a meal all in its own right!

Please let us know what you think, comment, share and be sure to tag us on your own versions on Instagram, we’d love to see!