Bacon-Tomato Salad

A hundred and two on Tuesday. A hundred and three on Wednesday. Nebraska in late July is a negotiation between the human body and the atmosphere and the atmosphere is winning. I drove a Hastings run with the air cranked and the windows tight and I ate ice cream at the truck stop like a person who had earned it, which I had. The kids swam. Amber worked. The dog lay on the tile floor in the bathroom because the tile is cool and Biscuit has figured out more about comfort than most humans I know.

I got the first copyedits back from Sarah. Pages and pages of margin notes in red ink and digital comments and questions like "Can you clarify what a dry van is?" and "Is this a regionalism?" and "Lovely — keep." Some of it made me laugh. Some of it made me wince. Some of it was right. Some of it was wrong. I worked through the first hundred pages this week, sitting in the sunroom at 5 a.m. with coffee and a printed manuscript and a pen, and I learned that editing is a different muscle than writing — writing is pouring out, editing is chiseling in — and my muscles hurt by Friday in a way that was satisfying in the way truck muscles used to be satisfying.

Justin's first scrimmage is next Friday. He wants me there. He did not say so. I know because Dave told me. Dave said, "He mentioned it twice." For Justin, twice is practically begging. I am rearranging Friday. I will be there.

Gayle had me over for coffee Thursday — her house, her kitchen, her formica table with the cigarette burn from 1978 that has been a family landmark for longer than Dave has been alive — and she pulled out a shoebox of recipe cards and pushed it across the table and said, "These are yours now." I said, "Ma." She said, "When I die you'll clean out the house and you'll find them. I'd rather hand them to you." I did not cry. I did not say thank you. I said, "I'll take them when you're done with them." She said, "I'm done with them." I took them. I brought them home. I put them in the kitchen drawer and did not open them. I cannot open them yet. I will open them someday. Not yet.

Made a summer vegetable tian Sunday — tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, onion, thyme, olive oil, all of it sliced thin and fanned in a baking dish and roasted for an hour until the edges crisped and the center collapsed and the whole thing tasted like July concentrated. The recipe is not in the cookbook. Maybe it should be. I will think about it. Tyler ate three helpings. Tyler has never eaten three helpings of vegetables in his life. The book keeps writing itself, even on the dinner table.

That tian fed us well on Sunday, but by midweek the tomatoes on the counter were past their window for roasting and I wasn’t about to heat the oven again — not at a hundred and three degrees with Biscuit already flat on the bathroom tile. This bacon-tomato salad is what I made instead: fast, no fuss, deeply satisfying in the way that only a truly ripe tomato can be. It felt like the right twin to that Sunday dish — the same July-in-a-bite quality, just raw and bright instead of collapsed and caramelized — and honestly, after a week of copyedits and shoebox recipe cards I wasn’t ready to open, simple felt like exactly the right amount.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 5 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 medium ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks
6 strips thick-cut bacon
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Cook the bacon. In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon strips until crisp, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, then crumble into rough pieces once cool enough to handle.
Make the dressing. Whisk together red wine vinegar, olive oil, sugar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves.
Combine. Add tomato chunks and sliced red onion to a large mixing bowl. Pour the dressing over and toss gently to coat.
Finish and serve. Scatter the crumbled bacon and chopped parsley over the top. Taste for seasoning and adjust salt or vinegar as needed. Serve immediately at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Bacon-Tomato Salad — July on a Plate, No Recipe Card Required