THE PERFECT TOMATO SANDWICH

I went out for lunch yesterday with my husband, and we paid about fifteen bucks apiece for a very mediocre/unsatisfying salad. So, this morning, I took off to the farmer’s market in search of the perfect tomato for a good old-fashioned tomato sandwich.

My husband comes from Georgia, where his father has an amazingly abundant garden – tomatoes being his speciality. As a result, my hubby was raised eating tomatoes every which way, and he believe that when you have a perfect tomato, there is no better way to eat it than in a sandwich, BUT the sandwich has to be simple and unadulterated with fancy ingredients such as Buffalo Mozzarella.

It’s all about the tomato and the bread. I happened to have a loaf of sliced Sourdough Bread (from the farmer’s market last week), so was fine in that department, plus I have a huge planter of basil which is crying out to be picked. However, the tomato?? I wandered through the market looking at all kinds of expensive heirloom varieties that I knew my husband would turn his nose up at, and then I found it – a deep red (almost scarlet) perfectly round, just-soft-to-the-touch, fruit. I knew it was the one. Although not “organic”, the farmer promised me that he never used pesticides, so I took his word. It cost me one buck.

Lunchtime rolled around and I lightly toasted the bread. Then I smeared a generous amount of Spectrum Organic Mayo on both slices (don’t skimp on the mayo). I sliced the still-warm tomato (never put it in the fridge because it will lose its flavor). I laid the slices on the toast, topped with a few large basil leaves, flakey sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

My husband agreed that it was the best lunch we’ve eaten all summer. We bit in, and the sweet juice ran down our chins. He was reminded of sitting at his mom’s kitchen counter after jumping through the sprinkler on a hair-dryer-hot day. The lunch probably cost about 50c each and there wasn’t a restaurant in Los Angeles that could have delivered a more perfect sandwich!