Greek Salad with Figs, Tomatoes, Olives, Feta and Arugula

Greek salads go far beyond the classic warm-weather Mediterranean diet ingredients of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. Indeed, a Greek salad can contain almost anything, so long as it’s seasonal. This Greek salad is a great example of how the change of seasons is mirrored in almost every Greek recipe. The segue from summer to fall is one of the most delicious in Greece. The last figs dangle from fig trees, grape clusters glimmer in the sun, the tomato plants are mangy but in the throes of their heroic efforts to push out the last of their ruby-red fruits. Olive trees are usually heavy with fruit in September, albeit still unripe. The strange geometry of pumpkins, defying gravity as they hang so seemingly precariously from their vines is everywhere in sight, at least on Ikaria, where I usually spend the early part of the fall. This salad is a paean to the season’s glories, sans pumpkin and with the addition of feta cheese, red onions and Greek feta! Oh yes, and no small amount of extra virgin Greek olive oil for the dressing.