The WAY For Tomatoes

As mentioned in an earlier post we are having a crazy weather year. It was wet earlier in the summer and now when we should have cooler, wetter weather it has been blazing hot and dry. Many things in Wife's garden are suffering...EXCEPT for all of my limited kitchen plantings. All my herbs which usually just close up shop for the summer heat are incredibly robust and prolific. I have chiles a month earlier than I ever have. And I have tomatoes equally earlier than I ever have.

The arrival of the first wonderful, flavorful, juicy tomatoes send me to what I have determined by much experimentation is my all time favorite way of presenting the goodness of tomatoes.

Drum roll

THE OPEN FACE GRATINEED TOMATO SANDWICH

The rules for this sandwich are thus:

• Good Bread - In the example above I'm using Wife's homemade, not sweet whole wheat bread. I also frequently use various types of rye bread
• Toast the bread - to help inhibit the over soaking of tomato juice into the bread
• A Layer of Mayo - There is something about the combination of tomatoes, bread and mayo that is etherial
• A Layer of a Complimentary Flavor - I frequently use ham, but in one of the examples above I used hummus and roasted peppers. These must be secondary to the tomatoes! The Tomatoes are the star
• Big Slices of Tomatoes Just Minutes from the Garden - I will have as many tomatoes by volume as all the other ingredients combined.
• A Very Thin Layer of Cheese - Any good melting cheese will do There is Compte on the ham one and Havarti on the veggie one. 
• Melt Cheese via Broiler - It goes in the toaster oven for just a minute or two just so the cheese melts and starts to bubble

Then extract on to plate, get a good knife and start cutting away so you get some of each component with each bite.