Tomato Salad with Burnt Honey Vinaigrette

This salad dresses summer tomatoes with a unique sweet-tart vinaigrette. We cook honey until it caramelizes, then offset its bittersweet notes with wine vinegar and olive oil. A mild, light-colored honey such as clover or orange blossom is best, as stronger, darker varieties overwhelm the tomatoes. Knife-chopping is not the way when prepping the nuts here. Instead, pound them in a mortar with a pestle to uneven bits—ranging from finely ground to coarse pieces that soak up juices and cling to the tomatoes. No mortar and pestle? Place the nuts on a cutting board, cover with a towel, then bash them with a skillet, meat pounder or rolling pin.