Freshly toasted slices of rustic bread, topped with Boursin herbed cheese and slices of fresh, ripe garden tomatoes.
Every year we get a little bit better at growing tomatoes.
The first couple of seasons I tried gardening, the yield was pretty pathetic. Over the years I’ve learned that you need to have plenty of sun, deep watering but not too much watering, soil prepped with compost, and a good covering of mulch.
I’ve even taken to crumbling up egg shells and placing them at the base of the plants to help the soil with calcium, which can ward off blossom-end-rot.
This year we finally figured out that we need resistant hybrids, tomatoes that can fight against the verticillium wilt that is endemic to our soil.
So into the ground went the Celebrity variety, resistant to just about everything, and I’m happy to report that we have a bumper crop of excellent tasting tomatoes.
So much so that we are a little overloaded at the moment. What to do when you have a bounty of garden tomatoes?
Well, my dad likes making tomato juice, and I have spent the last couple of days canning tomato salsa. This snack, which I’ve made a few times over the last week, is a winner!
So simple. It’s just toast, spread with Boursin herbed cheese, topped with sliced fresh garden tomatoes, and sprinkled with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
We get freshly baked La Brea bakery French and Italian loaves at the local market, which of course makes a difference. You want a toast that will hold up to the tomato and not just collapse the minute it touches something moist.
We just happen to have Boursin in the fridge, but you could easily use any spreadable cheese, like goat cheese, mixed in with a few minced herbs.
Easy! And crazy good.
Tomatoes on Toast Recipe
- Prep time: 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2 to 4 as a snack
If you don’t have Boursin cheese, you can use goat cheese with some chopped fresh herbs mixed in. You will find the Boursin easiest to spread if it has been sitting at room temp for 10 minutes or so.
Ingredients
- 2 to 4 slices of French or Italian loaf bread
- Herbed Boursin cheese, about 2 Tbsp per slice of bread
- 1 medium to large vine-ripened tomato
- Coarse salt (like fleur de sel or even just Kosher salt)
- Freshly ground black pepper
Method
1 Toast the bread.
2 While the bread is toasting, slice the tomato into 1/4-inch slices.
3 Once the bread is lightly toasted, spread one side with Boursin cheese. Top with a couple slices of tomato, overlapping if necessary. Sprinkle with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Eat immediately.
