Summer's Sandwich

Plum tomatoes -- Romas and San Marzanos have been ripening for several weeks now. And they've found their way into salads and sandwiches where they've been a welcome addition. But really, plum tomatoes are meant for canning or roasting or cooking into sauce. They're not what we call a 'eating tomato.' 

Now however, the true eating tomatoes are coming in -- Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Red Zebra . . . I have about twenty of these and some I can't identify. Claui gave me a unlabeled mixed assortment of little plants and I'm enjoying seeing what shows up.

Yesterday I enjoyed my first tomato sandwich of the season. When these big beauties ripen, a tomato sandwich is mandatory .

Bread, mayonnaise, thick slices of a good eating tomato (I used Cherokee Purple and Brandywine) and some salt.  That's all. It should be goopy -- some people eat their mater sandwiches while leaning over the sink. 

The bread should be sliced white loaf bread. Some swear by Wonder bread or its equivalent. I prefer homemade but in view of the heat, bought some  sliced country white from the grocery deli. You want soft bread so the juice of the tomato and the mayo can soak in a bit.

 

I have heard some loose talk to the effect that Duke's mayo is the only choice for a proper Southern sandwich  -- to which I say, not so! My very Southern family always used Hellman's or, on special occasions, homemade mayonnaise. I am addicted to homemade mayonnaise -- so that's what I use -- lemony, a little sweet, a little spicy (I put cayenne pepper in my recipe) -- it's perfect, if I do say so myself.

Plain salt, or salt and pepper, or Jane's Krazy salt are the final touch. 


A gift of the summer heat that can make a body want to shout, like the old man at the joyous climax of a fiddle tune, "O Lord, why's Man born to die?"