Not just the what, but the how.
Summer of 2023 is the summer of travel, heat, and the return of Bartlo's Backyard blog posts! While the blogs are sparce, taste adventures continue to dominate our Instagram feed.
Recently, Bartlo's Backyard spent a week in Greece to experience the culture, the history, and the flavorful food. One of our favorites was true Greek salad, which has no lettuce and no vinegarette dressing. The acid from the tomatoes does the trick with with olive oil. As with many dishes, ingredients matter in traditional Greek salad - what they are and how they are prepared.
When we returned, we visited the West End Farmer's Market in Alexandria, VA, to get the freshest veggies. We gathered ripe beefsteak tomatoes, fresh green bell pepper, red onion, and cucumbers. Next, we went to the Mediterranean Cafe to buy good, imported feta cheese. The feta from Greece is creamy, not crumbly and over salted like we make in the USA. Finally, we brought home Greek olive oil in the supermarket in Athens. From now on, we will be purchasing olive oil from the Mediterranean Bakery & Cafe as well. You'll also need a pinch of salt, a dash of ground black pepper, and some dried oregano. In Greece, they included kalamata olives. My family isn't a huge fan so we left them out. So, that's what.
This is how. Thinly sliver the green pep-
per and red onion. Nobody wants a mouthful of overpowering red onion! Peel the skin from the cucumber and chunk it into bite-size pieces. Chunk the tomato into bite size pieces. Toss all together in a bowl with 2-3 tablespoons of Greek olive oil, just a sprinkle of dried oregano, pinch of kosher sea salt, and dash of ground black pepper. Everything is very light. Then break apart your feta cheese on top and serve.
This pairs excellent with a rosé or crip and bright white wine.
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