Each week in Genius Recipes—usually along with your assist!—Meals52 Artistic Director and lifelong Genius-hunter Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that may change the best way you cook dinner.

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You’ll by no means understand how protecting individuals are of their favourite sandwich till you write about it on the web.

“Simply. NO.” and even an precise “Humbug!” are simply a few of the reactions you would possibly see if you happen to recommend tweaks to the common-or-garden tomato sandwich, which, to a (surprisingly passionate) crowd, should be nothing greater than a just-right bread, a just-right mayo, an excellent tomato, and salt (1).

I love the individuals who really feel this a lot pleasure and nostalgia about their favourite meals. I really feel equally about biscuits and gravy and a sure style of bizarre ice cream float that doesn’t get plenty of competing variations, for some cause.

So I’m right here to say, sure, eat your lovely, summer-warmed, elbow-licking (2) tomato sandwich your means. And once more tomorrow! However possibly on day three, as a substitute of the inevitably diminishing returns of getting that very same sandwich, take a break and do that Tomato Toast from the Estela cookbook and Chef Ignacio Mattos as a substitute. It feels completely new—bolder, richer, juicier, crunchier—for nearly the identical variety of components and actions within the kitchen. In a way, this recipe is solely a technique to have extra tomatoes, within the treasured fleeting time that they’re good.

The meals at Estela is famed for trying deceptively plain—a free heap of endive leaves hiding tacky granola crumbles and streaks of chile vinegar like pine needles protecting the forest flooring; bison tartare pebbled with sunchoke chips and pickled elderberries, all served in a messy jumble. Deceptively plain lasts till you’re taking a chew. A loud, scorching, shiny, vibratingly scrumptious chew.

Even when cooking from Estela at dwelling, you’ll be shocked at how little you need to do to conjure the identical, due to Mattos’s refined however decisive layering in every dish. (Otherwise you’ll must mince bison or make squid ink inventory with six sorts of dried seafood, however you are principally doing a lot much less.) To learn the way he and his crew fastidiously nudged the traditional tomato sandwich simply out of our consolation zone, I spoke to Chef de Delicacies Sam Lawrence. Right here’s what I realized:

The Bread

Whereas the purist’s tomato sandwich depends on the squish of low cost white bread, Mattos leans crisp, taking some borderline fanatical measures to get there.

He slices an extended, skinny plank from the underside of a loaf of pumpernickel (or one thing equally dense and seedy), lops off the facet crusts, then singes it in a scorching cast-iron pan in a bit olive oil, urgent the bread in opposition to the smoking pan until it resembles a really massive cracker. Final little chef’s kiss is a mild scrape of the uncooked garlic clove over the toast, leaving only a trace of it behind—like bruschetta, just like the easiest-ever garlic bread, like we needs to be doing to most items of toast we make.

After all the Estela crew use the deserted bits of bread elsewhere—as breadcrumbs within the aforementioned tacky granola crumbles; in romanesco-like sauces and the cod roe unfold taramasalata—however if you happen to don’t wish to must discover a use for them, be happy to do that similar squish-’n’-griddle transfer with a traditional slice of bread.

The Goo

A few of you’ll say Hellmann’s mayo is ideal for tomatoes (3). (Which is why Emma Laperruque’s BLT salad from Huge Little Recipes, with a dressing of simply cherry tomatoes crushed up with mayo, is its personal sort of genius.)

However Fromager d’Affinois, a double-cream, mellow, Brie-adjacent (4) cheese can be good. (You should use every other barely funky gentle cheese whose creamy center spreads like butter at room temp, workaday Bries included.) It floats above the crispy toast as a gentle mattress for the tomato as a substitute of sinking in, and makes a lustier, saltier foil for the tomato’s shiny siren juices. It skews extra meal than condiment.

And, as ceramicist and author Marian Bull, who tipped me off to this recipe, wrote for Saveur concerning the goo, “A advantage of the edge-to-edge protection is that the toasts can sit for a second with out turning soggy, and subsequently are an ideal factor to make for firm.“

The Tomato

The very best you’ll find. The sort you picked up at a roadside stand or carried dwelling from the farmers market holding your breath or plucked from the twisting inexperienced vines in your backyard, you fortunate satan. Now’s the time to make a number of toast, earlier than the tomatoes can solely be sauce. Mattos slices heirlooms barely 1/8-inch thick (utilizing a fine-toothed serrated knife like this will assist) then plates them throughout the toast like scales on an enormous shimmering fish.

The Salt

Grey salt (or different fancy ending salts) is nice for large crunch and bursts of taste. However what concerning the bites with out it? Just a bit little bit of your customary seasoning salt makes positive the toast tastes its tomatoeiest on the locations in between (whereas maintaining the flamboyant bites thrilling, too).

All of this care and thought from Mattos’ crew will come swiftly to you, in shattering, lush, juice-stained bites. Possibly at some point quickly you’ll be preventing for his or her honor on the web.

(1) None of this stopped us from messing with it earlier than.

(2) Or, per Lucy S.: “DUKES DUKES DUKES DUKES DUKES DUKES DUKES DUKES”

(3) See: Vivian Howard’s elbow-lick sandwich.

(4) Creamier than Brie! With a “flawless rind”.

Acquired a genius recipe to share—from a traditional cookbook, a web-based supply, or anyplace, actually? Maybe one thing good for newbies? Please ship it my means (and inform me what’s so sensible about it) at [email protected]—thanks to author and ceramicist Marian Bull for this one!