Every year when the weather starts to warm up I get my palette ready for all the fresh flavors about to come my way. This heirloom tomato salad makes the best of the old-fashioned varieties of tomatoes, often found in farmers markets so ripe you have to use them within a couple of days. That’s what I’m talking about!

Heirloom tomatoes can be more expensive, but there is a good reason for this. These varieties were not bred to be more resistant to spoiling en route to the market, nor were they grown to look universal in color and shape. Instead these types of tomatoes can have stripes, bulges, or even dark deep colors. And they spoil more quickly I’ve found. But, they also have a lot more flavor than commercial varieties.

Did you have a grandmother who grew tomatoes? Did she ever pick one and serve it to you alongside lunch, unseasoned except for a bit of salt and still warm from the sun? And did this tomato taste incredible? Well, it’s not rose-tinted glasses coloring your memory.

Home grown old fashioned varieties often have more flavor and better texture than your standard tomato. And heirloom tomatoes are the closest to home grown for a lot of us.

This simple salad uses them to full advantage, with basil, parsley, zucchini, and fresh bell peppers adding a bright rainbow of color and texture to the tomatoes. To make it even more colorful I used a bunch of different colors of tomatoes as well. You can’t get more summery than this!

I like to serve this with just some bread and butter for a light lunch. And yes! I put the tomatoes right on top of the bread!

Or you can serve it at the dinner table as a side, too. This marinated salad goes well with burgers, steak, chicken, eggs, or just about anything else you might want to have it with.