This recipe caught my eye because it’s just about tomato season here. I think the real peak is August and September in Maryland but you can get pretty good tomatoes in the supermarket starting around now. It also used dry mustard (aka mustard powder) which I feel is a criminally underused ingredient.

It’s another recipe where I didn’t think at first I’d have to do much of anything (if anything!) to update it but when I went back and started pulling ingredients I realized something was missing from the ingredients list—vinegar. How can you have Tomatoes Vinaigrette without vinegar? Sugar appears twice so my guess is one of those was supposed to be vinegar.

I decided to use cherry tomatoes because they are more reliably good year-round than slicing tomatoes. They are also naturally quite sweet which is a nice foil for the intensely savory vinaigrette and eliminates the need to add sugar.

Tomatoes Vinaigrette

adapted and updated from an unknown contributor's recipe for Tomatoes Vinaigrette in The Defense Center Secretaries Take Pride in Presenting Their Favorite Recipes 1987

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Prep Time 10

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Ingredients

¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 sprig fresh oregano minced
⅛ red onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes I used a mix of different colored grape and cherry tomatoes

Instructions

In a small bowl with a lid, whisk together all of the ingredients except the tomatoes.
Add the tomatoes.
Cover with the lid and shake to distribute the dressing.
Allow to sit at least an hour before serving, shaking periodically to redistribute the dressing and again prior to serving.

Notes

I served it in a bowl but lettuce leaves like the original would keep the dressing from spilling off a plate.

I enjoyed this quite a bit! I love tomatoes so I’m not surprised but grating the onion (and my addition of garlic) added a lot of flavor that spread throughout the full dish, unlike sliced onion or garlic. The mustard gave it a bit of a kick. I am growing two fresh herbs this summer and one is oregano so I added some in. I think it made a good addition. I think you’d be fine if you didn’t have any on hand to leave it out.

Adapted and updated from an unknown contributor’s recipe for Tomatoes Vinaigrette in The Defense Center Secretaries Take Pride in Presenting Their Favorite Recipes 1987