Who would have thought that peaches and tomatoes make such a perfect combination, but yesterday I discovered my new favorite summer salad with a fresh garden tomato and a juicy ripe peach.

It all started when James brought in a sack full of donated tomatoes and a carton of Crow Mountain peaches.  I’ve been getting all kinds of garden donations from friends lately. Apparently word has spread that I’m on a desperate quest for fresh vegetables. All that complaining about Italy having fresher produce than us has paid off because there’s so much in the kitchen now that I’ll be cooking all day so the fruit flies don’t carry us off.

This is how the tomato hooked up with the peach: I started chopping up a couple of tomatoes thinking I’d make some bruschetta. I’m really good at making bruschetta these days, and I was going to share a basic recipe with all of you. I had a few leaves of fresh basil slithered, roasted garlic, olive oil and balsamic just waiting. I turned on the oven to preheat and reached for the Italian bread, but realized the bag on the fridge was empty. A few crumbs was all that remained. Apparently (I found this out later) the boys (Matt and Jack) used every bit of it to make egg sandwiches the day before. 🙁

With a bowl full of tomatoes, my brain starting thinking and found the answer sitting right in front of me:

Yes, Peaches!  I remembered how good the peaches were on a caramelized peach salad I made earlier this summer so I peeled and chopped and added a couple of peaches to the bowl. These were so fresh there was no need to caramelize…just natural sweetness.

I added a little olive oil, a splash of my sweet balsamic vinegar (If your balsamic is too strong, just add a little honey), a few slithers of fresh basil. I also added finely chopped mint and a splash of orange juice. I always have mint and basil growing in my flower pots right off the kitchen so that was simple. Oh, and I almost forgot I had salted the tomatoes earlier when I thought I was making bruschetta, but the salty tomatoes just added to the sweetness of the peaches. Delicious!

I spooned this soupy, tomato-peachy stuff over the top of a spring salad mix with arugula. It was so good…just ask James because he ate every bite and wanted more.