2021 JPF grant recipient Edwin’s Leadership & Restaurant Institute is the subject of a Oscar-nominated documentary called Knife Skills. While enrolled in the program, formerly incarcerated adults are provided with free housing, legal services, job coaching, clothing and intensive training and hands-on culinary work experience at various training centers including a butcher shop, an incubator kitchen, a bakery and an award-winning fine French restaurant.
Ingredients
- 1 large tomato
- ¼ cup kalamata olives
- ¼ cup niçoise olives
- 2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley, large stems removed
- 2 sprigs cilantro
- 1 orange
- Red wine vinegar
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Fine sea salt
- 10-12 cilantro leaves
- 6 mint leaves, torn
- 2 ounces fresh goat cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Thinly slice the tomato and arrange on a platter in a single-layer with some slight overlapping.
- On a large cutting board, coarsely chop the olives, then add the parsley and cilantro sprigs and continue to chop, mixing together, until the texture is fine enough to be a sauce, but still has some bite. Cut one strip of peel from the orange and remove the pith. Cut into julienne, then finely chop and add to the mixture. Give the whole thing another quick chop and transfer to a bowl. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and squeeze in the juice from half the orange. Stir in a few generous glugs of olive oil. Season to taste with salt. Set aside to let the flavors marry for at least 10 minutes.
- Spoon the tapenade over the tomato slices. Sprinkle with the cilantro and mint leaves. Drizzle with olive oil, dot with the goat cheese and season with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature. Enjoy!
When tomatoes are in season, I love to make this simple Provençal-style salad inspired by Jacques’ olive tapenade. I like to use an heirloom tomato, but any very ripe, flavorful tomato will work well.