Tomato Sandwiches

[hannahcooks]

The trick I've learned to tomato sandwiches- besides using homemade mayo, or Hellman's gussied up with lemon- is to press the tomato slices between two paper towels before putting them in the sandwich. Keeps the sandwich perfectly non-soggy.

[Holly Moore]

The trick I've learned to tomato sandwiches- besides using homemade mayo, or Hellman's gussied up with lemon- is to press the tomato slices between two paper towels before putting them in the sandwich. Keeps the sandwich perfectly non-soggy.

And that is good?

[skunkbunny]

I have been reading the great thread on fresh white asparagus as I eat my first tomato sandwich of the summer. My mum always made tomato sandwiches for me and my brothers when summer rolled around; thick slices of tomato, toasted bread, salt, peppper and never enough mayonnaise. I wondered if other members had favourite summertime dishes or food memories?

[GG Mora]

...as I eat my first tomato sandwich of the summer.

Dang. And me just now getting mine in the ground...

[ludja]

Love tomato mayo sandwiches...

Other favorites growing up were even deconstructed from that:

sliced tomatoes with s&p and a dollop of mayo as a side dish

and

bringing great summer tomatoes to the beach and eating them like apples alongside our sandwiches (salt to sprinkle on too).

We always had white terrycloth beach robes and inevitably some tomato juice would get on part of them. Brings back great memories of summers in New England...

Edited June 6, 2004 by ludja (log)

[Toasted]

My current obsession is sliced tomato on a crusty roll with some softened goat cheese and s & p. Really good! Btw: I'm all for the mayo with the tomato sandwiches but I don't like homemade mayo at all. I know it's weird but I can't stand it. Now Hellman's, that's some good stuff.

[Busboy]

I like every kind of tonatie sandwich there is, but after a long winter of seeing lame-ass bruschettas on menus in two countries, I'm eager to rub garlic on toasted peasant bread, throw in some fresh tomato and chopped basit from the garden, and top with olive oil and fleur de sel. Then, on to the BLT's!

[aliwaks]

tomatoes!!!!! I want tomatoes!!!!

variations

#1

Sliced peeled heirlooms or beefsteak, sprinkled with salt (fleur or kosher) let sit on plate for as long as you can stand it, sprinkle bit of olive oil, chopped chive and eat with hunks of country bread, sometimes on the bread sometimes off and use bread to mop up tomato juice

#2

Toasted onion bagel, fresh cream cheese (if in the Hamptons then dill & herb cream cheese from the place in Watermill), thick slice of tomato sprinkled with kosher salt & cracked pepper- oven faced (bacon optional)

#3

Thin sliced white bread with herb (mint & chive, nastursium if I can get it) butter & sliced tomatos that have been seeded, salted and left to sit for a wee bit.. make dainty sandwiches but drag at least one or two little triangles through the tomato juice left from salting them

(same treatment for cucumber and or radish sandwiches)

#4

Thick sliced white bread, homemade mayo or hellmans, sliced tomato S&P, Bacon optional..also optional thinly sliced red onion

#5

grilled garlicky Evoo slicked bread with diced tomatoes & fresh basil splash of lemon juice, (fresh mozzerella optional)

#6

crostinis with soft goat cheese and halved pear tomatoes fleur de sel & chives

tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, I want them I want them now 2 weeks to go I think

Edited June 6, 2004 by aliwaks (log)

[Mabelline]

Nothing can beat the mater sammich still warm from the garden,eaten over the sink with mayo, salt and pepper. You have to taste that goodness once. No stuff in the way of that warm, sunny tomato flavor. It is something you can curl up with and remember in the middle of a winter icestorm.

[marlena spieler]

mmmmm: favourite tomato sandwich, though i am definately an afficionado of the mayo kind too (esp the aioli kind, or the basil-aioli kind) is the Andalucian can Catalan tomato sandwich:

Good crunchy crusted bread, rubbed with garlic, rubbed with tomato, drizzled with olive oil and eaten for breakfast.

its the breakfast thing--waking up to it and eating it for breakfast rahter than lunch-- that makes this even more special but a mayo-tomato sandwich for breakfast is okay with me, too, completely. okay okay, a slice or two of jamon on the tomato-bread thing is fab, too, like a spanish version of a blt.

marlena

[Ovenfrenzy]

I planted several tomato plants this spring, all of them growing with enthusiasm. Soon enough will come the wonderful moment of plucking the first one, heavy and warm and comes off the stem with the mere touch of a hand. I can barely wait- there's Brandywine, Better Boy, First Lady, and two kinds of currant tomatoes. The sandwich can be haute or low- I'll eat it. Squishy white bread, Miracle Whip, showers of salt and pepper do well to embrace a tomato. Crusty bagette, thick slices, aioli: I'll enjoy that as well. But when I'm really hankering to enjoy a just picked tomato I will just slice one thick, slap the slices on a plate, and eat them plain or with a bit of S&P.

[rhiannonstone]

To each his own, but to me the One True 'Matersammich is Better Boy or Beefsteak tomatoes from the garden on white bread (pref. Wonder or Sunbeam or Merita) with Duke's mayo and salt and pepper.

I make tons on variations myself, with wonky breads and goat cheeses and arugula, but that is the holy tomato sandwich of my youth.

[eunny jang]

I LOVE tomato sandwiches.

My parents are disgusted both by tomatoes and mayonnaise, but I insisted they buy both as soon as I read Harriet the Spy.

Tomato sandwiches now make me think of reading on a hot summer afternoon, sitting in scratchy mid-summer grass, writing little spying observations in my notebook, and brushing bits of leaves etc out of the neglected sandwich before each bite.

[Toliver]

My mom often regales us with tales of growing up in rural Kansas, of eating tomatoes and peas fresh off the vines. To this day, she still relishes tomato sandwiches, no food pun intended.

I, however, am apt to hold out for bacon with my tomato sandwiches.

The best BLT I ever had was made at home, with thick-sliced Maple-cured bacon fried until crisp (but it was thick enough to still be chewy, if that make sense), thick sliced home-grown tomatoes and slices of avocado instead of lettuce, on whole wheat slathered with mayo.

[Ovenfrenzy]

The best BLT I ever had was made at home, with thick-sliced Maple-cured bacon fried until crisp (but it was thick enough to still be chewy, if that make sense), thick sliced home-grown tomatoes and slices of avocado instead of lettuce, on whole wheat slathered with mayo.

Oh Lord have mercy! Now I REALLY can't wait for the tomatoes to ripen! If only I could grow avocadoes as well.

[Susan in FL]

Ah, one of my favorite subjects. I like the sliced tomatoes on soft white bread, with mayo, S&P, and -- very important in this family -- a slice of raw sweet onion.

We have just started picking ours!

[Toasted]

I LOVE tomato sandwiches.

My parents are disgusted both by tomatoes and mayonnaise, but I insisted they buy both as soon as I read Harriet the Spy.

You are so funny! Harriet the Spy was my favorite book growing up and I used to pretend I was her, prowling around the neighborhood and spying on the neighbors. I think that's probably when I learned to love tomato and mayo sandwiches too!

[NulloModo]

When I was younger I would always turn me nose up at tomato sandwiches because they had no meat on them, so surely they were an unfit foodstuff.

Thankfully, I saw the error in my ways, and now enjoy the traditional: mayo, wonder bread, thick sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper.

[hillvalley]

Oven roasted tomatoes with basil and carmelized garlic on toasted sourdough

[cakewalk]

Oven roasted tomatoes with basil and carmelized garlic on toasted sourdough

The once simple tomato sandwich has evolved!

[wilewil]

Fry up extra bacon, pick tomatoes from garden, grab bread and Mayo (or Miricle

Whip) and get in the car. On the way to the lake, stop at country store for a few slices of rat cheese off the big wheel. When you get to the lake you can have the best sandwich known to man (or woman, or even dog)! It sure worked for my family.

[NulloModo]

I wonder how fried green tomatoes would translate into sandwich form....

Perhaps served on a piece of (a little more firm than crumbly) cornbread?

[tissue]

I LOVE tomato sandwiches.

My parents are disgusted both by tomatoes and mayonnaise, but I insisted they buy both as soon as I read Harriet the Spy. 

You are so funny! Harriet the Spy was my favorite book growing up and I used to pretend I was her, prowling around the neighborhood and spying on the neighbors. I think that's probably when I learned to love tomato and mayo sandwiches too!

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who loved Harriet the Spy. My parents thought I was nut.

[aliwaks]

I wonder how fried green tomatoes would translate into sandwich form....

Perhaps served on a piece of (a little more firm than crumbly) cornbread?

hmmm fried green tomatoes on grilled thick cut sourdough with bacon and a jalapeno mayo?

[nones]

Nothing can beat the mater sammich still warm from the garden,eaten over the sink with mayo, salt and pepper. You have to taste that goodness once. No stuff in the way of that warm, sunny tomato flavor. It is something you can curl up with and remember in the middle of a winter icestorm.

Ahhh! Perfect! I could die in a moment like that and have no regrets.