This is my ideal summer salad for tomato season. I like to think of this as an Eastern European panzanella – the bread soaks up all the delicious tomato juices and sour cream, and provides a textural contrast to the smoked cheese and pungent onion.
I didn’t grow up with this recipe. I first tried it in the height of summer – peak tomato season – in Kyiv. Going through my old Ukrainian diaspora community recipe books, I couldn’t find anything that was exactly the same. I’m sure my childhood would have been LOADS better if I had been raised with this recipe in the regular rotation at my house – that’s what I tell myself out of spite for wasting twenty-six years of my life before experiencing this salad. It’s been a recipe in regular rotation since then. I am deeply in love with this salad – I could eat this every damn day.

Make this when you’ve got a bounty of tomatoes – different colours, sizes, varietals. I say you’ll need six to eight medium sized tomatoes, but feel free to throw in some small cherry or grape tomatoes for some variance in texture. Kosichka is a smoked sheep’s milk cheese found in countries across the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, shaped into strings and braided – often served alongside beer as a snack. If you can’t find Kosichka, thin matchsticks of smoked caciocavallo or smoked mozzarella will do. If you can’t get a hold of that either, tear mozzarella into small chunks and toss with a teaspoon of liquid smoke – the flavour is what matters most here. I know the addition of a single garlic clove looks wrong (usually it’s 4-10 cloves or a “measure with your heart” approach with me), but it’s used here as a subtle seasoning versus a main component of the dish. Stick to a single clove – you want the other flavours to sing and the garlic to be the back-up dancer.

You will need:

6-8 medium sized tomatoes
250ml sour cream
200g of kosichka, or other smoked string cheese
1 large sweet yellow onion, sliced thin
2 cups of stale bread chunks, sourdough or baguette works well
1 small garlic clove, chopped very finely or through a garlic press
a dash of white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
fresh dill fronds, torn up to garnish if you so wish to add a pop of green

You’ll also need:
a large bowl
a colander
metal whisk
knife and cutting board

Method:
Start by cutting your tomatoes into wedges. Place the colander over your large bowl, pouring in any tomato juice still sitting on the board. Put your tomatoes in the colander and sprinkle two teaspoons of sea salt overtop, tossing to coat. Let this sit for half an hour, letting the tomato juice drain into the large bowl below. If you don’t have a half hour, you can certainly skip this step and go straight to dumping the tomatoes in the bowl, but I prefer to let the salt pull the liquid out of the tomato flesh first to mix the dressing and season it appropriately.
Once your tomatoes have drained, spoon in your sour cream, chopped garlic, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and white wine vinegar. Whisk together thoroughly and taste – if it needs a touch more salt, add it at this point. Once your dressing is mixed, chop your cheese into bite-sized strips and throw it in the bowl along with the stale bread chunks, tomatoes and sliced onion. Toss well until everything is coated with the dressing. Tear some dill overtop before serving.

Wine pairing: a Sicilian Carricante or Cataratto.