Instructions: Cut 3/4 of the tomatoes in half, and place in a bowl. Set whole tomatoes aside for garnish.

Arrange basil leaves on each of four plates. Top each with 1/4 of the cut tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Garnish with reserved whole tomatoes, the feta cheese, and oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve.

This recipe yields 4 servings.

Comments: They may be ever present now, but only five hundred years ago, tomatoes were a fruit found only in the Peruvian Andes. Spanish explorers brought tomatoes back for their European debut, but the fruit was hardly a hit; viewed with suspicion and outright fear, tomatoes were believed to promote lascivious behavior or to be just plain poisonous. A few centuries after their introduction, cooks in the Italian city of Naples experimented with the import and began dressing up spaghetti dishes with a tomato-based sauce. The results would reverberate through the centuries until today, when we can barely imagine a plate of pasta without tomato sauce.

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