Patrick grew up in Rochester eating tomato sandwiches, while I had never even heard of them before. But I love tomatoes and since we’ve been trying to come up with simple and cheap meal ideas, I was all for trying something new.

So, on a random Saturday afternoon, we decided to assemble a few open-faced beauties. I toasted some multigrain sandwich bread, slathered on some tofu cream cheese (the best and cheapest is found at East Village Cheese), topped with thick slices of tomatoes and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Absolutely delicious! So delicious, in fact, we ended up eating more tomato sandwiches the very next day.

But, while that first rendition was good, we would greatly improve upon the recipe over the next few weeks.

Tomatoes: The tomatoes I had on hand when I first made the sandwiches were local Jersey tomatoes from Associated. They’re expensive at about $2.80/lb and while pretty to look at, kind of tasted like water. So, we set out to find some juicy and sweet tomatoes at the local farmers markets. I cannot stress enough the HUMONGOUS difference in taste. It’s remarkable. The best ones taste almost sugary sweet when you bite into them. And when you’re only dealing with a few ingredients, you need to make sure the ones you have are the best you can get your hands on.

Bread: I can’t speak for Patrick, but my favorite version is on toasted bagels. I like the contrast in textures–crunchy and chewy, along with the creamy and soft. He loves potato bread, though, so that might be one of his top picks. Maybe he’ll eventually write a related post and share his thoughts.

Spread: Hands down, Hellman’s mayonnaise. A good quality, full-fat cream cheese is tasty as well, but for me, it has to be Hellman’s. And none of that low-fat, flavorless goop, either. A tablespoon of the real stuff won’t kill you. While I’m curious to try my hand at making homemade mayonnaise, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll update, if I do.

Salt & pepper: Generous sprinkling for me, a lighter hand for Patrick.

Other notes: We added fresh mozzarella once, but found it made the sandwich too bland. We tried it with thin slices of speck, which was pretty good, but unnecessary.

After about 3 weeks of non-stop tomato sandwich making and eating (averaging out to about 3-4 times a week, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks), we’re still at it, full-force. And probably will be until the summer tomatoes run out!

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