Tomatoes with Wasabi Mascarpone and pine nuts salad

A fantastic summer salad of tomatoes with wasabi mascarpone with pine nuts from Ottolenghi’s book “Nopi”. This has very powerful flavours so team it with something like lamb cutlets white fish,or Chicken for those of you who enjoy things with feathers.

This one should only take a few hours … but you can prepare all the elements in advance. Just keep them separate and put the dish together just before serving.

This is all about the tomatoes, so get as many different varieties as you can: red, green and yellow; baby plum , cherry and vine. They also look great if they are not cut in uniform fashion: smaller tomatoes should be halved, while larger ones should be cut into wedges or sliced.

Ingredients – Serves 6

250g mascarpone
1tabsp wasabi paste
10 g chives, finely chopped
10g tarragon, finely chopped
1 spring, finely sliced ( 20g)
2 banana shallots, thinly sliced widthways (100g) NOTE I don’t know where to find these so used ordinary shallots found @ Fish Market veg market.
2 tblsps Pedro Ximénez sherry vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1kg mixed tomatoes, cut into a mixture of slices and wedges 1 cm thick
20g pine nuts toasted
5g mixed basil leaves ( plain, purple and micro-basil) or just plain basil, to garnish

1. Place the mascarpone, wasabi, chives, tarragon and spring onion in a bowl with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and good grind of black pepper. Mix well and keep in the fridge until ready to use

2. Place the shallots in a separate bowl with the sweet vinegar, oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mis well and keep in the fridge until ready to use.

3. To serve, divide the mascarpone between the plates and spread it out to form a thin layer. Place the tomatoes on top, followed by the pickled shallots.
Sprinkle withthte pine nuts, then scatter over the basil leaves., tearing the larger ones as you go. season with 1/3 teaspoon of salt and good grind of black paper and serve.