Cheese, tomato and basil toasties

November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ Connie

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, we had breakfast in the garden. It hadn’t rained in days, the sun was shining and a light, cool breeze was blowing. Everything felt fresh on such a crisp morning and I thought that the occasion called for an appropriate breakfast. I prepared toasties with cheese, fresh tomatoes and sweet basil from our own garden.

Cheese, tomato and basil toasties

Just about any kind of bread can be used for making these toasties. I used split pan de sal because that was what we had. For best results, slice the bread thinly and flatten with a rolling pin so that they require a very short time to turn crisp.

Makes 8 toasties.

Ingredients:

4 large pan de sal
2 large tomatoes
about 200 g. of cheese (I used sharp cheddar but you can use substitute your favorite variety)
salt
freshly ground pepper
extra virgin olive oil
fresh sweet basil leaves

Slice the tomatoes and the cheese. Allot three slices of tomato and two slices of cheese per toast.

If you have fresh sweet basil, it’s the best thing for this breakfast dish. If you don’t, use dried basil. But, fresh or dried, please don’t omit the basil because the leaves add a wonderful freshness to the otherwise blase combination of cheese and tomatoes.

You’ll need about a dozen or so basil leaves to make eight toasties. Stack them one of top of the other, roll and slice thinly.

Split each pan de sal horizontally. Use a rolling pin to flatten them a bit to create a wider surface on which to lay the tomatoes and cheese.

Arrange three tomato slices on each piece of bread. Sprinkle with a little salt, some freshly ground pepper, then drizzle about a teaspoonful of extra virgin olive oil.

Top with two slices of cheese. Garnish with some basil leaves.

Note that you can opt to add the basil leaves after the bread comes out of the broiler. They’ll look prettier that way with the leaves still bright green and crisp. Personally, I like the heat to bring out the aroma of the basil.

When all the bread slices have been prepared, arrange them in the oven or broiler. Broil at 375oF for five minutes. Note that while a turbo broiler does not require reheating, conventional ovens do.

Serve at once.

Click the thumbnails below for the illustrated version of the recipe.

October 26, 2009  Print This Post   
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Comments

4 Responses to “Cheese, tomato and basil toasties”
  1. Natz San Mateo says:
    October 26, 2009 at 11:06 am

    Ms. Connie,

    SARAP!!! Almost like PIZZA Margarita!

    Reply
  2. Tracy says:
    October 27, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    Boy, does that sound delicious! I love sharp cheddar, but there is no better combination than mozzarella with fresh tomatoes and basil. I think I might have to try it both ways to see which I like better!

    Reply
  3. sheric says:
    November 18, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    Hi Ms. Connie,
    like it very much…yummy, i also try mayonnaise with sundried tomato and basil which is also good.

    Reply
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