This is our perfect tomato sandwich. Everyone has the way they like it, and this is ours! Crusty sourdough bread, thick heirloom tomato slices, plenty of mayonnaise, chives, and flaky salt to bring the best flavor out of those perfect summer tomatoes!
Tomato Season
Because this summer has been so hot, I’ve been quite desperate to make a meal out of tomatoes any time of the day. It just feels like the best and most effortless way to “cook,” and I wish I could survive on them alone, because it’s just so easy.
The other day I made a tomato sauce with chopped heirlooms from my parents’ garden, two whole cloves of garlic, olive oil, and a few liberal pinches of salt.
It almost burned on the stove because I got distracted doing something else, but it was just enough heat for the sugars in the tomato to thicken and do their thing. I tossed it with some spaghetti and pasta water, finished with a little basil, and wowie, it was perfect.
After blogging this tomato sandwich, we made a delicious panzanella salad with the trimmings. We’d cut a bunch of tomatoes and threw in the leftover slices, added the leftover chives, some shallots out of the garden, and a sliced peach.
We toasted a few slices of sourdough drenched in olive oil in a pan and chopped those up into chunks. If I’d had the wherewithal, I would have thrown in a cup of little mozzarella balls too. Good amount of flaky salt, some extra olive oil, and white wine vinegar…heavenly!
These easy near brainless tomato recipes are what makes the summertime heat and that pot of tomatoes on the patio worth it!
Picking & Storing Your Heirloom Tomatoes
Tomatoes are the biggest bang for your buck in a summer garden. They are relatively easy to grow, and taste so much better than any tomato you can buy in the grocery store.
We’ve finally learned the importance of picking our heirloom tomatoes before they’ve fully ripened, as they have a tendency to split, beckoning all the little critters like a siren in the night. Opportunistic squirrels also tend to single out those perfect tomatoes and get to them before you.
Our trick is to let them ripen in the sun on the kitchen counter, and they’re perfect. Once ripened, eat them ASAP for the best flavor. Contrary to popular belief, they can go in the refrigerator once they’re ripe, but not before.
That said, if you want to experience tomato nirvana, eat it as soon as it ripens, without a trip to the refrigerator. If said tomatoes are a bit past their prime or were refrigerated a bit long, you can cook them as opposed to eating them raw.
We couldn’t resist breaking out a rainbow of heirloom tomatoes for this recipe! The sandwich is as much a feast for the eyes as the tum.
Ugly produce is still good produce!
An important reminder as we’re all in the thick of glorious summer produce. Perfect produce is undoubtedly photogenic and beautiful. However, slightly wonky produce is still delicious!
I recently attended a local event hosted by Welcome to Chinatown with a representative from the USDA Commission and local grocers, restaurant chefs, and, most importantly, farmers. Choy Commons was represented, one third of which is Christina Chan, who we worked with on our How to Grow Chinese Vegetables series. I learned a lot of fascinating things that day about how to support Asian American farmers.
One thing that produce suppliers and grocers wished consumers understood was that ugly produce or slightly imperfect produce is still great produce! Slightly cracked heirloom tomatoes, as you can see, are still gorgeous inside—and delicious!
What’s Your Favorite Mayonnaise? Let’s start a brawl in the comments!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Just kidding, it will be polite discourse, as we are a family blog. Buuut we want to hear about your favorite mayonnaise and why.
Sarah and I are classic Hellmann’s lovers, whereas our parents are partial to the olive oil Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Apparently this is an east coast preference? I just love that Hellmann’s is buoyant and bouncy and has a pure egg flavor.
Then there are the Duke’s mayonnaise devotees, and the Kewpie kids. Weirdly, *my boyfriend* (!) reps Kraft mayonnaise.
Yes I did seriously question some things after hearing this, and I’m sure he did too after witnessing my deep mayo prejudices. But it turns out Serious Eats agrees with him?! Okay, so maybe he is a keeper after all…
Popular additions to a tomato sandwich:
This recipe is part recipe and part treatise and defense on how I’ve come to build my tomato sandwich.
There is no cheese, because now that I’m past 30 I really should finally just confront my lactose intolerance head on. Also the cheese is too much of an attention-seeker. It is the figurative mean girl here to crash the tomato homecoming queen’s party, and no mean girls are allowed in this chive bedazzled tomato sandwich.
That said though, others swear by their tomato sandwich formulas as devoutly as I do by mine so here are some common additions to a tomato sandwich:
- A slice of mild cheese like colby jack or a sharp cheddar
- A few turns of black pepper (not for me, but go for it if you like)
- Basil or scallions—I think chive reigns supreme but that’s just me
- Sliced hard-boiled egg (we learned this trick from Skinnytasteand it’s so good!)
Tomato Sandwich Recipe Instructions
Lightly toast the sourdough bread. The goal is for it to be just toasted enough that it doesn’t immediately give way to a soggy mess when those juicy heirloom tomato slices hit. I generally don’t want it to be crunchy. Sarah says forget the toasting altogether and drop everything you’re doing to eat the sandwich immediately. Go with your gut.
Slice the tomatoes a little over ¼ inch (about ¾ cm) thick. If I’m making a sandwich that *has* tomato but *not* a tomato sandwich, I like for the tomato to be as thin as possible. When tomatoes are the main event, however, you want a substantial tomato slice to bite into. Otherwise it’ll just taste watery.
Spread the mayonnaise onto both slices of bread. You want a thick layer. You’ll be a little shocked at the amount, perhaps, but in my early tomato sandwich trials, I’ve slathered more daintily and was always left wanting more. I’ve put a range of 2-3 tablespoons per sandwich, which will also depend on the size of your bread slices.
Sprinkle the finely chopped chives onto the mayo-ed bread. Place 2-3 tomato slices side by side on one slice of bread.
Sprinkle with the flaked salt.
Repeat with another few slices of tomato and more salt.
Close up the sandwich…
…and cut in half using a serrated knife.
Now feast! Enjoy this sandwich immediately. You won’t want it to sit around, as the tomato juices soak into the bread and make it soggy.
Tomato Sandwich
This is our perfect tomato sandwich—a great way to showcase fresh, ripe summer tomatoes. It’s deceptively simple and incredibly delicious!
Prep: 10 minutes
Total: 10 minutes
Instructions
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Lightly toast the sourdough bread.
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Slice the tomatoes a little over ¼ inch (about ¾ cm) thick.
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Spread the mayonnaise onto both slices of bread.
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Sprinkle the finely chopped chives onto the mayo-ed bread. Place 2-3 tomato slices side by side on one slice of bread. Sprinkle with the flakey salt. Repeat with another three or four slices of tomato and more salt.
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Close up the sandwich, and cut in half using a serrated knife. Enjoy immediately.
nutrition facts
Calories: 562kcal (28%) Carbohydrates: 72g (24%) Protein: 15g (30%) Fat: 24g (37%) Saturated Fat: 4g (20%) Polyunsaturated Fat: 14g Monounsaturated Fat: 5g Trans Fat: 0.1g Cholesterol: 12mg (4%) Sodium: 1536mg (64%) Potassium: 456mg (13%) Fiber: 4g (16%) Sugar: 9g (10%) Vitamin A: 1173IU (23%) Vitamin C: 19mg (23%) Calcium: 84mg (8%) Iron: 5mg (28%)
