Tuscan Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad

Tuscan Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad is a beautiful summer salad that’s perfect alone or on the side with almost any grilled protein!

I’m working on learning a new state-of-the-art camera.  Mama, there’s a lot to learn!

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll remember that we had a flood from a frozen pipe in our home in early January.  Good grief, what a freaking mess.

Once we got our home back together and life settled down a bit, I discovered one of the workers who worked in our home stole one of my camera lenses.  It’s the only explanation of how this lens could have disappeared.

This discovery was heartbreaking.

I’ll be much more cautious in the future about who we have work in our home.  I’ll be sure to check for anything missing immediately.  We used this contractor two other times without issue but this time was a major disappointment.  (If you live in the Memphis area and need a hardwood floor installer, email me and I’ll tell you who NOT to hire.)

Anyway, because of this loss, I began thinking about my camera equipment in general.  Rather than just replace the lens, I decided to get a new camera body to attach a new lens onto!

How else does a girl make herself feel better?

Well, bear with me on the photos because there’s a bit of a learning curve going on here.

When you’ve got a lot of things going on, don’t you need something nice and easy?

This Tuscan Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad is just that!  Our tomatoes have been struggling a little this year, but thankfully, we’ve had plenty of cherry tomatoes.

It was time to do something with them so I came up with this super simple salad from things I already had on hand.

Tomatoes in salads can become watery.  I tossed them with sugar and salt first and let them sit.  All that goodness sitting on the bottom of the bowl seemed too good to throw out.

A lot of seeds were in that juice, so I strained them out and decided to recycle that flavorful juice into part of the dressing.  A little red wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes and this dressing started to rock!

Canned cannellini beans, fresh basil, Parmesan cheese and yeah!  A great summer salad!

Serve this alongside some simply grilled fish, chicken or even on grilled bread for a lovely appetizer!

Tuscan Cherry Tomato and White Bean Salad

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Prep Time 45 min

Total Time 45 mins

Ingredients

• INGREDIENTS
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt plus more as needed
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 can (15-ounce) cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 large sprig fresh basil, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. INSTRUCTIONS
2. Combine tomatoes, sugar and salt in a bowl. Let stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Carefully remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon into a different bowl, leaving as much liquid behind as possible. Strain the liquid to remove the seeds then transfer to a third small bowl.
4. Add the vinegar, olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes and salt and black pepper to taste.
5. Add the beans to the tomatoes, toss with dressing, add basil and Parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

by Carol | From A Chef's Kitchen

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