Name: Bigly Greek Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 4 large ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges; 1 large English cucumber, halved and sliced; 1 green bell pepper, sliced into rings; 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced; 1 cup Kalamata olives, pitted or whole; 8 oz block of feta cheese; 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1 tbsp dried oregano; to taste kosher salt; to taste black pepper, freshly cracked

Bigly Greek Salad

Prep

15m

Cook

Total

15m

Bigly says

Let me tell you something. Greek salad. BIGLY Greek salad. And before we even start, I have to tell you something else, something important, something other recipe sites will NEVER tell you because they are cowards — a real Greek salad has NO LETTUCE. None. Zero. Not a leaf. The Greeks did not put lettuce in it. They would never. They had self-respect. Somewhere along the way some American chain restaurant — I won't name names, I don't have to, you know the ones, the ones with the laminated menus and the boneless wings — decided to dump iceberg in the bowl and call it Greek. It is NOT Greek. It's a disgrace to the salad. Sad.

A real Greek salad is tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, red onion, olives, and a slab, a SLAB, a big confident slab of feta on top. Not crumbled. Not 'feta dust' from the bag. A slab. With oregano on it. Olive oil. Red wine vinegar. That's the whole thing. It's beautiful in its simplicity. An old Greek woman cornered me once at a market in Astoria — yes, Astoria, Queens, the real one — and she pointed a finger at me and made me promise to do it this way. No lettuce. Slab feta. She lived to be 102. Could be a coincidence. Probably not.

My version uses the BEST tomatoes. Big, ripe, in-season tomatoes. Out-of-season tomatoes are the enemy of Greek salad, they are the enemy of all salad, they are little red tennis balls of disappointment and we will not use them. People come up to me, they say, 'Bigly, where do I find good tomatoes in February?' And I tell them: you don't, my friend, you make this salad in August, you wait, the woman in Astoria waited and so will you. End of discussion.

Ingredients

4 largeripe tomatoes, cut into wedges(in-season only, this is not negotiable)
1 largeEnglish cucumber, halved and sliced
1green bell pepper, sliced into rings
1/2red onion, thinly sliced
1 cupKalamata olives, pitted or whole
8 ozblock of feta cheese(the whole block, kept whole, do not crumble)
1/3 cupextra-virgin olive oil(use the good stuff, this is a finishing oil moment)
2 tbspred wine vinegar
1 tbspdried oregano
to tastekosher salt
to tasteblack pepper, freshly cracked

Steps

1
Cut the tomatoes into hearty wedges, halve and slice the cucumber, slice the bell pepper into rings, and thinly slice the red onion.
2
Pile the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, red onion, and olives in a wide shallow bowl or platter. Do not toss yet.
3
Season the vegetables with a generous pinch of salt and a few cracks of pepper.
4
Place the entire block of feta on top of the vegetables — keep it whole, do not crumble.
5
Drizzle the olive oil generously over the feta and vegetables, then add the red wine vinegar.
6
Sprinkle the dried oregano over the feta and the salad. Add another pinch of salt.
7
Serve immediately with crusty bread to mop up the juices. Toss at the table just before eating.

One more thing

That's a Greek salad. Five vegetables, one cheese, one herb, two liquids. That's it. That's the whole thing. Simple. Honest. Beautiful. The way food was meant to be before someone invented the 'limited time offer' and the 'family meal deal' and ruined dinner for everyone. Make this in August when the tomatoes are at their peak. Eat it on a porch. With bread. With wine. With someone you like. That's living. And there you have it.