September in the Kitchen – Tomato Sandwiches and the Kitchen Sink

You probably want to know “What do tomatoes and the kitchen sink have to do with each other?”. Well, I’ll tell you, it has to do with categories of sandwiches. There are dainty tea sandwiches made for white gloves, hearty sandwiches with gravy meant to be eaten with a knife and fork, picnic sandwiches to be eaten outdoors, and ‘kitchen sink sandwiches’ which you need to eat while standing over the sink to catch the drips. This is definitely one of the later. Take a look at all that drippy tomato!

Make this while summer tomatoes are at their most ripe and delicious. The ingredients are simple but need to be the best…ripe tomatoes, crisp good quality sourdough toast, sweet onion, garlic, sea salt, and mayo. That’s all.

Although you could add bacon…just saying.

Kitchen Sink Tomato Sandwiches

For each sandwich you will need:

• 2 slices of good sourdough bread, toasted crisp
• 1 clove of garlic, cut in half
• 1 slightly over-ripe tomato, cut in half
• 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
• 1 ripe tomato sliced thinly
• Sea salt
• a few thin slices of red or other sweet onion

1. Start by toasting your bread, it should be crisp.
2. Rub one side of each slice with the cut side of the garlic clove, be assertive.
3. Rub that same side with the cut side of the over ripe tomato, squeezing to coat with juices.
4. Top that with a thin smear of mayo
5. Layer the tomato juice side of one slice with the thinly slice tomato, sprinkle with sea salt (I used salt I purchased when we were in Key West earlier this year), top with the onion, then the other slice of toast (tomato side down). Press lightly together.
6. Eat over the kitchen sink.

Lunch! Or a very delicious snack. So simple, so wonderful!

The idea for this came from the N.Y. Times food section.