Tender lettuce, ripe Celebrity tomatoes, watermelon, mild feta, a few leaves of basil, and a restrained drizzle of good balsamic vinegar: when the raw ingredients are this good, cooking is irrelevant.  I had a similar watermelon/tomato/feta salad from St. James Cheese Company’s recent luncheon-booth stint at the Tuesday Crescent City Farmer’s Market, and I opened the refrigerator this weekend to discover I had all of the key ingredients on hand.

This peak-of-summer salad is my favorite kind of food.  A bit of savory (feta), tangy (tomatoes), sweet (watermelon and balsamic vinegar), all tied together with a bitter, leafy-green crunch.  Another winning summer salad combination:  butter lettuce, goat cheese, fresh peaches, and toasted, salted pecans.  (Hmmm, wait a minute.  I have peaches and goat cheese in the house:  I feel another salad coming on…)