Watermelon and Feta Salad with Thai Basil

Farmer's Market Watermelon

My family ate their watermelon and tomatoes straight—no salt. By the time I got to high school I learned that some families sprinkle salt and even pepper on watermelon and especially tomatoes. But I think it was only six years ago I tasted watermelon with salty cheese and peppery arugula. It was an appetizer. The chef cut 2-inch cubes of watermelon and scooped a hole out of the top about an inch deep. He filled it with vinaigrette-dressed baby arugula and sprinkled goat cheese on top. I thought it was so clever and unusual.

Now, thanks to Google, you can find plenty of recipes for savory watermelon salads, though I think our palates are so traditional that these contrastive salty/sweet salads continue to surprise and delight.

Just this morning I was thumbing through the current issue of Edible Wasatch and found a recipe for watermelon and feta salad, with jalapeño slivers and marjoram leaves. Finding the recipe further substantiated my thought that this is a good week for watermelon and feta salad; I bought feta cheese at Costco last week so of course I have plenty, I bet the melon growers from Hurricane are at the Park City Farmer’s Market tomorrow, and Thai basil is in our Ranui Garden’s CSAbox today. Mint is the usual herb in watermelon salads, whether sweet or savory. But, remembering that marjoram and basil are part of the mint family, why not Thai basil, which has a stronger anise note than the more familiar Italian sweet basil?

Thai basil

4 cups seedless watermelon cubes, or chunks with seeds removed

1 cup crumbled good quality feta cheese

½ cup Thai basil finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion, sweet onion or shallot

¼ teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Arugula leaves, stems removed or Ranui Gardens salad greens

watermelon, feta cheese, Thai basil

Put the watermelon, feta cheese and ribbons of the Thai basil in a bowl. Make a vinaigrette dressing by whisking the orange juice, rice wine vinegar, olive oil, onion, salt and pepper together. Drizzle the dressing over the salad. Chill.

To serve, make a bed of arugula or lettuce on individual plates and mound about 1 cup of the watermelon salad in the center. Grind black pepper over the top.

Makes about 4 servings.

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Basil Pesto

If you were to peek into our freezer in January, you would find several recycled cottage cheese or miso containers labeled and dated Pesto; from this summer’s harvest they will read Pesto 2009. I dip into the tubs for pasta sauce, as seasoning for soup and the times when an interesting recipe calls for fresh herbs and I don’t have any.

Stashing a bit of frozen pesto is the most squirrel-like thing I do. And because I use a food processor there is very little time involved–the work is in stripping the basil leaves off the stems. Purists be appalled, but any flavor or texture nuance lost by not using the traditional mortar and pestle is more than made up for with timesavings. You say it still seems like too much work and you can buy pesto in jars at the store—to me that is like saying dried parsley or cilantro, or basil, is an adequate substitute for the fresh leaf.

Here in Park City the sports shops have all the summer gear on sale and over Labor Day weekend they switched over—to skis, boots and winter clothing. I’m getting ready for winter in the kitchen; I’m stocking my pesto larder using the fresh basil in this week’s CSA box. I like this recipe—it calls for more garlic and less olive oil than many. In the middle of winter, a dollop of basil pesto reeking of garlic will bring a rich punch to our dinner. Today, harvest day, I’ll make basil pesto around dinner hour, reserving a little of the emerald opulence. I’ll mix it with an equal amount of pasta water, making sauce for pasta just boiled.

2 large garlic cloves

3 ounces Parmesan cheese, broken in pieces or already grated (don’t even think of using that sawdust in the green can)

2 cups tightly packed, stemmed fresh basil

1/2 cup walnuts (or pine nuts to be extravagant)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Add the ingredients in the order directed for efficient use of the food processor. With the motor of the food processor running, mince the garlic by dropping it through the feed tube. Process until it is very fine. Add the cheese, basil, walnuts and salt. Process for about 10 seconds, stopping to move things around if they get hung up. With the machine running, pour oil through the feed tube in a thin stream, processing until everything is well blended.

Makes about 1 cup. Scrape into small containers immediately and freeze. To use in winter, thaw the pesto only enough so you can scrape some out.

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