First Summer Tomatoes (!)

Happy days!

This past week marked the arrival of the first summer tomatoes here in upstate New York. FIRST SUMMER TOMATOES! Whoooooop!

In addition to a few of the different kinds ripening in our garden — the first ones to ripen are the yellow pear, black cherry, and a variety of plum tomato I tried this year — a few stalls at the farmer’s market had sungold cherry tomatoes (so sweet, like candy) and a roma variety I’d never seen before called Red Striped Roma. That’s what you see in the picture above. Isn’t it pretty?

The farmer told me this variety of Roma was best for eating raw, which I was happy to do. We’ve been reveling in the start of the tomato harvest here — with the two pints of sungolds I picked up, I made tabbouleh using cucumbers and parsley and mint from our garden. I used the Red Striped Romas two different ways: in a caprese-like salad I made with tomato slices, mozzarella, basil pesto (from my pesto-making bonanza), a drizzle of reduced balsamic vinegar, and arugula from our CSA…

…and in what I am also referring to as my New Favorite Sandwich. It’s a twist on the BLT – but instead of mayo, I spread some mashed avocado on the toasted bread. We can also call it the “BLAT” if you want to…but whenever I say that, it comes out “blaaaaaaaaaat” and sounds somewhat less than appealing, no? And this sandwich is SO, so appealing.

Let’s keep it simple then: BLT with Avocado. Mmm mmm mmm.

A closing note:

CSA Post is coming, but probably next week. We’re packing up to go out of town to my brother’s wedding (!) this weekend! And because of that, I might be a bit behind getting comments moderated; bear with me and have a great weekend. Enjoy the great summer fruits and vegetables!

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BLT with Avocado

Ingredients (for 1 sandwich)
2 slices of your favorite kind of bread, toasted
1 strip bacon, cooked until crisp and broken into 2-3 pieces
a few nice pieces of lettuce
a few slices of ripe tomato
about 1/4 of an avocado, mashed and seasoned with a little salt and pepper

Directions
Spread the mashed avocado on each piece of toasted bread. On one piece of bread, place the lettuce leaves. On the other piece of bread, layer the tomato slices and bacon slices. Put the two halves together and press down lightly to adhere them a bit. Enjoy.