Mess of Tomatoes with Red French Vinaigrette

Growing up, my mom always had a jar of homemade salad dressing in the refrigerator-we also had all the bottled varieties, but my dad's favorite was mom's. We didn't call it Red French we just called it the homemade one, but I guess Red French would be a better description. I like it because it's not thick and heavy like some versions, it is more of a vinaigrette. It separates and must be shaken before using. For this tomato salad, I added some feta cheese, but blue cheese is also an excellent addition and a welcome change from all those creamy white blue cheese dressings. This isn't her exact recipe, but pretty close with a couple of additions.

We had an abundance of different kinds of tomatoes this week-Roma, beefsteak, heirloom, grape, yellow, etc.-so I just cleaned them and cut them up and tossed them all together with some feta, basil, and some home grown red onion from the Zakibe tribe and dressed it with Red French Vinaigrette.

Red French Vinaigrette

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon minced shallot

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoonsWorcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup olive oil (my mom probably used a vegetable oil)

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously, let the vinaigrette sit a couple of hours in the refrigerator, remove the garlic clove before serving.