Tomato and Mayo, in a sandwich… If you’re a mayo hater then skip this, but if you like creamy tangy goodness and are not a culinary heathen, then read on.
Tomato and Mayonnaise Sandwich Delight
The tomato and mayo sandwich. It’s most notably a Southern American thang. Yes, as a born and bred thorough Yankee from New Jersey, this is most definitely NOT a thing I every came to know on my own. Growing up, the closest I got to this was the BLT, which is Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich. The BLT is usually with toasted white bread, and you can leave out the lettuce in a pinch, or you can keep the lettuce and leave out the bacon (egad!) in a pinch, but this much simpler delicacy that I choose to write about now is a southern thing for sure.
There are many people out there who just do not like mayonnaise, or, they only like it in certain foods where it is so much a part of the result, that it loses it’s mayo only texture or flavor. For example, my wife doesn’t really like mayonnaise, but she’ll use it to make tuna salad and eat that. She won’t put mayonnaise alone on a sandwich or dip french fries in it they way the Belgians do.
The Foodie here is an adventurous soul when it comes to the culinary delights, and experimentation and new experiences are the norm, so unless it involves eating insects or something like that guy who did that gross out show on cable TV, I’ll try almost anything once.
The Foodie is a mayonnaise fan.
Yes, I said it. Mayonnaise is a culinary necessity for good foodie results, and the French and Belgians know something here. DO NOT diss the mayo!
The Southern USA is known for some real foodie faux pas, like deep fried things that were never meant to be deep fried, but the Foodie digresses. (and yes some of those things are tasty)
This brings us to the tomato mayo sandwich. It’s very simple. It’s simple perfection.
There isn’t even really a recipe since it isn’t cooked.
It’s a sandwich, people!
The Tomato and Mayo Sandwich “Recipe”
This is what you do…
You take two pieces of plain white bread.
Spread some mayonnaise on them both. Either do a thin layer or slather it on thick, depending on your taste and mayo tolerance.
Sprinkle some ground black pepper on them. If you like it “spicy” then make it dark and heavy. This is important because there is a synergy between the tanginess of the mayonnaise and the bite of the black pepper. It will linger in your mouth a bit after the sandwich is gone, and it’s that lingering that lets you savor it and maybe even opt for another.
Then, take a ripe juicy dark red fruity tomato. Any tomato will work but the deep read ripe fruity ones, if you have them, are best. I like plumb or a beefsteak type tomato the best.
Slice them thin or thick, again depending on your preference, and layer them on one side of the bread.
Then, slap that other mayo’d up slice on top, cut the sandwich in half with a sharp knife, and delve into the ecstasy that can only be this particular delicacy.
This creation is creamy, tangy, slightly black peppery, and tomato-ey, to the point of the parts being so much nowhere near the whole that you almost can’t believe that it can be this simple yet this good to your taste buds.
Now, of course, if mayo grosses you out then this is, sadly, off the menu, but if you are a mayo fan or at least like mayonnaise then the Foodie urges you to give it a try.
While not vegan, this is a vegetarian friendly thing, and I’m sure that there exists vegan mayo and bread out there somewhere that can make this agreeable to the vegans as well.
The South wins it with this one, and the Foodie urges those damn Yankees, and anyone else out there in Internet land, to give this one a try. You owe it to your taste buds and sense of adventure to just make this and enjoy it.
It might become a simple pleasure that you opt for over and over.
Foodie out. Peace.