Tomato Salad

This salad means SUMMER. It's as delicious as staying in bed while your groggy lover drags himself to work. As delicious as boxed wine and the Cooking Channel at 2pm for the third day in a row. As delicious as laying on a towel on the lawn, finishing a novel in one day. As delicious as not working for three damn months.
I make tomato salad all summer long and we eat it with everything--goes beautifully with lamb chops, BBQ chicken or steak--all the kind of things you eat grilled, on days when it's way too hot to turn on the oven.
I have always loved tiny tomatoes--they are sweeter, somehow more tomato-y than big ones. The most difficult aspect of this recipe is not popping too many of them into your mouth as you chop.

Ingredients:
2-3 lbs of small tomatoes. Try to find a variety of colors and types. The very BEST way to make this salad it to get the rainbow heirloom ones from the farmer's market--but a few tubs from Albertson's also works.
1 head of fennel
1 bunch fresh basil
1 bunch Italian flat-leaf parsley
Balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

I used basil from the garden!

What to do:
Start by slicing the tomatoes. I cut each in half.

Sliced tomatoes

Put the sliced tomatoes in a bowl.
Then, dice the head of fennel and add to the bowl with the tomatoes.
Chop the basil and parsley together and add to the tomatoes and fennel.

Chopped herbs

Pour a glug of olive oil and a few lashings of Balsamic into the bowl.
Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.
Mix!
Eat!
Taste and re-season if needed.

This is a delicious, refreshing salad. My fingers are crossed that our tomato plants allow me to make it with our own produce later this summer--save the fennel, I am growing all these ingredients in the backyard.
Enjoy!