Tomato Toast Madness

My Tomato Toast inspired by the Cretan Dakos
Recipe to follow in next post

Tomato. What can I say about this fruit/vegetable that you don't already know? In the southern states of the U.S.A., there's a simple meal of white bread, mayonnaise, generously thick slices of fully ripened tomato, salt and pepper. It's a heavenly combination, which is not to be messed with by using uppity bread. Throughout the Mediterranean, the tomato features prominently throughout the hot weather months and in sauces and soups throughout Winter. The tomato comes in so many colors, shapes and sizes and is easily recognized as a favorite in most cuisines around the world.

Toast. It's bread, so it's already good. Toasting the bread even improves on the yeasty deliciousness, so that's a win! Toast is also a movie based on the Nigel Slater memoir of the same name. If you've seen the movie, then you know that toast is also love. Toast is also a tartine, the French open-faced sandwich, which is also a very fine bakery in San Francisco (now with several other locations throughout the Bay area, Las Angeles and even Korea!

Tomato Toast. There's been so much love (and hate) tossed about for the humble avocado toast, especially on Instagram where the hashtag has over 1.5 million versions. Poor little tomato toast doesn't come close. Recently, Emily Nunn, author of the fabulous (and possibly life-changing) book "The Comfort Food Diaries," shared a photo of her improvised #tomatotoast and it looked stunning and simply delicious. Well, that got me started, so I'm soliciting photos of your version of tomato toast. I hope that you (and your brother and mother and cousins and co-workers and neighbors) will get into your kitchen space, sanitize the counter (had to get my Covid reference out of the way) and make your dream tomato toast. Post it on Instagram, tag me and use the hashtag #tomatotoast so I can share your creation in my stories and in the Tomato Toastery highlights. Jump on in! It's not a challenge. It's not a competition. It's just an opportunity to get a little creative and have fun. Are you in?

My second attempt: guacamole, tomato, red onion, cilantro & queso fresco

Inspired by my Greek heritage: My first tomato toast was similar to Emily Nunn's but it fell flat. It was okay, I ate it, but I dreamed of what she had posted on her Instagram feed. So I persisted! Because I had just enough guac left over from Saturday's happy hour, I slathered that on, topped it with a beautifully ripened tomato that I'd picked up at the farmers market, and...success. And that started me thinking that this #tomatotoast thingy might just be a fun way to use up tomatoes, which are plentiful right now, and help to fire up everyone's creative spirit. And then we could just, well, eat everything. Win. Win. Win. I'll be looking for your interpretation/expression/version of #tomatotoast soon. See you on Instagram.