How to make River Cottage's heritage tomato and Portland crab salad

It’s been a great year for tomatoes, and the best are the multicoloured heritage varieties; bursting in flavour. A mixture of these provides an array of flavours and textures which match the soft, white crab meat perfectly

(Matt Austin)

Heritage tomato and Portland crab salad

Serves 2

300g heritage tomatoes
1 small (or half a large) red onion 
¼ cucumber, halved and deseeded
2 tbsp capers, drained
1 small bunch of basil
2 tbsp good quality olive oil
1 tbsp apple balsamic
150g picked white Portland crab meat

Ensure your tomatoes are at room temperature or even better sit them in the sun for a little while to really help bring out their sweetness and juiciness.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and place into a bowl, peel and finely slice the red onion and roughly chop the deseeded cucumber and add to the tomatoes. If using large capers roughly chop but leave whole if they are the smaller variety and add them to the rest of the ingredients.

Add the olive oil and apple balsamic to the tomato mixture, season lightly with sea salt and cracked black pepper and leave to sit for 10-15 minutes; this will allow a lovely juice to form at the bottom of the bowl.

When you are ready to serve, pick the basil leaves and tear into large pieces, present the tomatoes on a large plate retaining the juice in the bowl, scatter the white crab over the top and then pour over the remaining juice. Unbeatable with a chilled crisp white wine!

Recipe by Gelf Alderson, executive head chef at River Cottage (rivercottage.net)