This Easy Tomato-Watermelon Salad Will Help You Beat the Heat

This simple, colorful salad from Melissa Clark features a mix of salted tomatoes, juicy watermelon and crisp anchovy bread crumbs.

I was raised to believe in savory tomato salads. My mother ritually dressed them with garlicky, mustardy vinaigrettes, heavy on the tang, with pungent notes from olives, blue cheese, anchovies or canned tuna. The sweetest thing I ever saw paired with raw tomatoes during my childhood was corn, but only once. It was an article of faith for my mom that it was a cook’s duty to add contrast — and tomatoes were already sweet.

I lived by this credo for decades — until one hot August afternoon when I was introduced to my very first tomato-watermelon salad in a friend’s backyard. There was grilled rare steak, buttered corn, bowls of fresh blueberries. But I only had eyes for the giant mound of sunset-hued salad gleaming like rubies in the sun.

From the first bite, I felt my world shift. With the mellow chunks of watermelon now anchoring the sweetness, the tomatoes were free to reveal their savory side, flaunting an almost mineral edge under their flurry of flaky salt. Finished with good olive oil and a scattering of herbs, it was still a salad of contrasts, just of a gentler sort. And I’ve been creating versions ever since.

There are three simple tenets for making tomato-watermelon salads. First, choose the ripest produce you can get. Then, salt the tomatoes — but not the watermelon — at least 15 minutes before assembly. Salting seasons the tomatoes thoroughly and brings out their juices, which mingle with the dressing and flesh it out. Finally, add the dressing slowly and sparingly; the succulent fruit doesn’t need much.

Taking a cue from my mother’s love of the sharp note, for this iteration, I added anchovies. Not whole, obvious anchovies, which can be divisive, but discreetly melted into olive oil with some garlic. Then I used the sizzling fat to toast a handful of bread crumbs, which I sprinkled over the watermelon and tomatoes along with sliced olives and red onion. The result is a sweet and briny salad, with a mingling of textures: soft, crunchy and nubby.

You can make the bread crumbs a few days in advance, but don’t add them to the salad until just before serving so that they keep their snap. That crisp texture is a crucial counterpoint to the juiciness of the other ingredients. As my mother taught me, it’s a cook’s duty to add contrast.