Best restaurant news: A Caprese salad to love and other cool treats of summertime

Summer may have made its formal debut this week but it has been in soft-opening mode for months. I can tell by the industrial quantities of watermelon my puppy and I have been eating at breakfast every day (seedless, of course). It’s my breakfast, really, but Lenny dashes over when he hears the crunch of the knife slicing into the melon. So, yes, these sweet watermelon mornings have turned me into a dog mom who sets aside little cubes of ripe-red fruit for the pup.

Summer has brought us cool treats such as this.

Recently, my colleague Eddie Ritz put together a terrific list of places to go for ice cream, gelato and ice pops. You can check out the list here.

Some of my favorite recent cool treats

The Honeybelle Pie at Honeybelle, Chef Lindsay Autry’s restaurant at PGA National Resort. It’s Autry’s ode to the sweet-salty lemon pie of her childhood summers along coastal North Carolina. The unexpected touch that gives the pie its beachy flavors is the saltine cracker crust that holds the velvety citrus filling. The pie gets a whipped cream crown and a sprinkling of flaky salt, which echoes the crust beautifully. (Honeybelle: 400 Avenue of the Champions (PGA National Resort), Palm Beach Gardens, 561-627-7015)

The fish ceviche at Ceviche Arigato. I especially like the ceviche that’s marinated in Peruvian yellow pepper sauce and lime (ceviche de pescado en salsa de ají amarillo) and served with plump Peruvian corn and a wedge of sweet potato to mellow out the peppery heat. (Ceviche Arigato: 1447 10th St., Lake Park, 561-863-8877)

The watermelon salad at Voodoo Bayou. It’s the simplest summer side dish, ripe watermelon cubes with a touch of fresh mint. I ordered it as a brunch side recently at the New Orleans-themed restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens. It became one of the best-loved dishes at our table (and it had competition from the eggs Sardou and the eggs Benedict). Of course, it also fits into my current watermelon whim. (Voodoo Bayou: 11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave., at the Downtown Palm Beach Gardens plaza, 561-888-6703)

Summer also has brought us a rush of hot dining news. 

A trio of noteworthy restaurants with New York roots just opened in downtown West Palm Beach.

Tommy Bahama just opened an island-themed bar at The Gardens Mall.

Mizner Park in Boca Raton welcomed a new American bar-and-grill.

Star chef Thomas Keller has plans to take over an iconic restaurant space in Palm Beach.

And a bunch of summer dining deals have launched.

The ‘beautiful and diverse tomato’

Chef Lisabet Summa, who inspired the local Elisabetta’s restaurants, looks at a tomato and sees its infinite possibilities. A good, ripe tomato conjures up glorious BLTs, iconic Italian salads and sauce so good it needs no cooking.

Inspired by this favorite ingredient, Summa wrote a small essay about tomatoes and graciously shared it with me.

“In the lexicon of summer dishes, the beautiful and diverse tomato epitomizes the season best,” writes Summa, partner and culinary director at Big Time Restaurant Group. “From your backyard to your local produce stands or markets, the piles of deep red tomatoes are teetering and about to topple.”

What to make with those heaps of tomatoes you see at the market? A simple, stunning Caprese salad, of course. Summa offered these tips for selecting a Caprese-worthy tomato.

1. Think as local as possible. “Get thee to a produce stand and find the ripest, field-grown local tomatoes that you can get your hands on!”

2. Think ripe. “My choice for a Caprese salad is a vine-ripened tomato. Picked at the peak of ripeness… Whether a large or small heirloom or beefsteak, your best choice will always be one where flavor and quality trumps all else.”

3. Smell the tomato. “The aroma of the stem of the tomato gets me first,” she writes. “I love that green, earthy, unmistakable aroma.”

For that no-cook tomato sauce I mentioned above, Summa shares her fool-proof method, which starts with oval-shaped Roma tomatoes:

“Finely dice the tomatoes, season with salt, pepper and fresh basil and garlic and a good and generous dousing of extra virgin olive oil.”

To this bowl of seasoned, fresh tomatoes, Summa adds hot, al dente spaghetti.

“Toss! You are letting the heat of the pasta just warm the seasoned tomatoes enough to accentuate the flavors,” she writes. “This preparation retains the raw quality of the tomatoes. It could not be more summery with its cool temperature, eaten al fresco.”

Buon appetito!

Elisabetta's has locations in downtown West Palm Beach and downtown Delray Beach. You can view the menu and other details at Elisabettas.com.

Have a delicious weekend!

Liz Balmaseda

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Liz Balmaseda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network. She covers the local food and dining beat. Follow her on Instagram and Post on Food Facebook. She can be reached by email at lbalmaseda@pbpost.com. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Best restaurants: Great tomatoes, cool food treats in West Palm Beach