Heirloom Tomato BLT

A recent trip to the Farmer's Market led to purchases to create the ultimate farmer's market/local BLT sandwich. We started with some fresh homemade Amish bread, a lovely head of organic romaine lettuce from Delvin Farms, and an assortment of locally grown heirloom tomatoes. We also managed to come across some fantastic applewood smoked bacon from Niman Ranch (where their pigs run free, never fed hormones or antibiotics, no nitrates are added, and humanely raised on sustainable farms).

So I know there is no wrong way to create a lovely BLT - and really, the recipe is in the name... Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato. So I suppose my "recipe" will just more or less be a list of ingredients.

Farmer's BLT -

4 Thick slices of fresh bread, toasted
Romaine lettuce
6 strips of applewood smoked bacon, browned in a skillet, turning frequently
Heirloom Tomatoes, preferrably 2 or 3 different types, 2 slices out of each one.
Mayo, preferrably Dukes


The layering, to me, is important to be done in a certain order. Of course, this is only because I'm obsessive compulsive and prefer to have the tomatoes in the center. You spread mayo, generously, on BOTH pieces of toast. Start with layering the lettuce, as much or little as you would like. Season your slices of tomatoes with some sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Layer 3 slices of tomatoes on top of the lettuce. Next take your bacon and layer it on top of the tomatoes. I like to have these lay diagonally on the toast. Then top with final piece of toast. Slice sandwich in half diagonally (opposite direction of the bacon) and voila! The perfect BLT. These will probably become a typical weekend meal throughout the summer while heirloom tomatoes are in season.



So go out - enjoy your local farmer's market - and create the ultimate BLT with some fantastic ingredients that didn't travel across the country to reach your kitchen.

Posted by Lauren

best. dinner. ever.

Ok so maybe thats a stretch... but seriously, everytime I made this I forget how much I love it. Best part - its sooo easy! AND you get a bunch of veggies in, too! Let me think of a good name for it... Oh wait, I found the original recipe I got out of Everyday Food magazine. I've altered the recipe so many times, I've never referenced the recipe since the first time I made these. The magazine calls this "Portobello, Broccoli, and Red-Pepper Melts". But I switch up the veggies and the cheese and the bread so many times, you can call it whatever you want! The other great thing about this meal is that its quick to make - I'd say you'd spend about 20 minutes putting it all together. It's so versatile, so easy, so fast, and so cheap - why not make this a weekly staple?

So on to the recipe......

Roasted Veggie Melts
serves 4 (or two if you make it the only thing you're eating)

Ingredients:

• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets. stalk discarded. (This is an important ingredient, do not leave it out!)
• 1 small red pepper, cut into 1/2" pieces.. you know, bite size but not too small. (you want all ingredients to be roughly the same size so they roast evenly)
• 1/2 red onion, sliced in 1/4" slices
• 6-8oz cremini mushrooms, cut into quarters
• olive oil
  
• 1/4c mayo
• 1 clove garlic, crushed, finely chopped, however you wanna do it
• 4 thick slices of bread - NOT sandwich bread... use country bread, sourdough, italian, challah, french, whatever... You just want it to be a sturdy, crusty bread.
  
• 4-6oz cheese... Now here you get to be creative. The photo above was using kerrygold irish cheddar with irish stout in it.. mmmmm.... or you can use gouda, gruyere, goat cheese, swiss, etc... parmesan does not work. You want the cheese to melt smoothly and be able to stand up under a broiler.
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Move a rack in your oven to the first or second row (about 6" away from heat source) and turn on your broiler.
2. Crush/finely chop garlic and mix into mayo. Season with salt & pepper. Set aside. (do this earlier so that it has time to flavor the mayo)
3. Wash and chop all your veggies into equal size pieces. Line a large baking sheet with foil and put ONLY the broccoli on. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt & pepper. Place under broiler for 5-7 minutes. You'll want to stir the broccoli once or twice before removing it... let it get a nice char. (this is important! char is good!)
   
4. Remove pan from broiler, and add the rest of the chopped veggies. Drizzle more olive oil and season with more salt & pepper. Place back under broiler, tossing several times until veggies are nice and tender. About 8-10 minutes.
5. Slice the bread into about 1" thick slices. Spread garlic mayo evenly over slices. Top with the roasted veggies (pile em on! and leftover veggies are soooo good on their own, its ok if you don't use up all of them). Then top with the cheese. Place under broiler for 2-4 minutes, until cheese is melted and lightly browned. (though not all cheeses will brown, so use your best judgement).
6. Serve hot! Serve with a salad or something on the side if you like, but its good just by itself!

So again, this is really good. I know there's no meat for carnivorous boyfriends such as Lindsay's.. but you don't miss it one bit! Who knows, maybe it'd be good with some sausage mixed in. But I highly recommend this dish.

Enjoy!

Posted by Lauren