Summer potato salad with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and onion, grandma’s recipe for a tasty potato salad, simple, fresh and delightful. The summer potato salad my grandmother Fernanda used to prepare with potatoes, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and red onion is an easy, quick and delicious recipe that takes very little time to make — great like the Aeolian Potato Salad and the tasty potato salad. It’s delicious, light, refreshing and ideal to prepare in advance, to take to the beach, on an outing or to the office — perfect on a hot sunny day. Summer potato salads, like the tuna potato salad and the Greek potato salad, can be both a main course or a delightful summer side dish — even better as a complete summer one-dish meal, light and satisfying. Super easy to make, it’s the right solution if you’re looking for ideas on what to eat when it’s too hot, like on these July days: you can cook the potatoes in the morning and once they’re cool use them for our tasty potato salad. If you’d like to read other potato salad recipes, browse this collection of Potato Salads: many tasty recipes. Let’s go to the kitchen now — our big summer potato salad is waiting, but first a reminder: if you want to stay updated on all my recipes, you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here)!
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients to make the summer potato salad
- 1 1/3 lb potatoes
- 2 2/3 cups cherry tomatoes (yellow and red)
- 1 Tropea red onion
- 7 oz cherry mozzarella balls (or mozzarella)
- to taste salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste dried oregano
Tools
- Pot
- Bowl
- Refrigerator
Steps to make the summer potato salad
Boil the potatoes: place them in a pot full of water, add salt and bring to a boil. Cook for 35–40 minutes; pierce with a toothpick to check — when tender (but not falling apart) turn off the heat, drain the potatoes and let them cool. Put them in the fridge for about 2 hours or until completely cold.
Peel the cold potatoes and cut them into chunks.
Rinse the cherry tomatoes or tomatoes and cut them into wedges. I chose a mix of yellow cherry tomatoes and red cherry tomatoes.
Peel the onion, rinse it and slice it. If you don’t like a strong onion flavor, place the slices in a bowl, add half a glass of water and half a glass of vinegar, mix and let rest for 10 minutes — this will release much of the onion’s liquid and reduce the sharp smell.
Peel and chop the cucumber into pieces, put everything in a salad bowl or baking dish together with the potatoes, add a generous drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle with oregano, season with salt and mix. Finish with the halved mozzarella balls or diced mozzarella and toss again.
The summer potato salad is ready — serve immediately or at most within the day. Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
I recommend dressing the salad with salt and oil only shortly before serving; this way excess liquid won’t collect at the bottom of the bowl and the vegetables will stay firmer for longer.
Can I add vinegar?
Yes, if you like.
