Tomato Sandwich With Chili Crisp Lime Mayo

So you’re at the market, it’s August and the crates are overflowing with tomatoes. There are green ones, pink ones and tomatoes as red as a fire truck. They’re big, they’re sweet and they’re ripe. In fact, they’re probably so ripe that they’ll go bad if they don’t get eaten right away.

But let’s face it – you can only make so many tomato salads without getting bored. Salsa is a good option but you can only eat so much of that too. The same goes for gazpacho. You could also make tomato sauce but only if you have time for the labor intensive endeavor. It’s summer. You’re hot and you’re hungry for a cool summer lunch.

Enter the classic tomato sandwich.

Can you really make a sandwich with tomato slices as the star? You bet. Think about something as simple as pizza marinara (the one without the cheese). Essentially, that Neapolitan pizza style is just bread and tomatoes with some spices, like dried oregano, added for good measure.

In the United States, the classic southern tomato sandwich is a simple affair with tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper, mayonnaise (traditionally Duke’s) and white sandwich bread. The Japanese place their fresh tomatoes and mayo inside slices of brioche or milkbread. They also up the ante by adding furikake, a umami-rich seasoning blend of seaweed, salt, sesame seeds, dried fish and MSG.

For our recipe, we decided to travel a different, yet no less auspicious, road toward tomato sandwich bliss. Considering our love for chili crisp, we decided to create a flavorful chili crisp lime mayo that makes ripe tomatoes sing like a coloratura soprano at a summer opera at the Arena di Verona.

Our tomato sandwich recipe requires the following ingredients:

Not to be Captain Obvious here but middle summer into early fall is the best time for making and eating tomato sandwiches. This is the peak season for tomatoes and when they taste best.

The key is buy the best available tomatoes. We asked the merchant at our local farmers market which were the best tomatoes and she recommended Portuguese heart tomatoes (not to be confused with the famous Portuguese oxheart variety). So that we use in this recipe.

You can use any tomato that suits your fancy – yellow tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, plum tomatoes, German green stripe tomatoes, Brandywine tomatoes, etc. The key is to use tomatoes that are fresh, ripe and flavorful.

Pro Tip
Don’t use cherry tomatoes since they would fall all over the place.

While we slice our tomato about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick for this recipe, you can go thicker if that’s what you prefer. Once you slice the tomatoes, you’ll want to lightly sprinkle the slices with salt to achieve maximum flavor.

Don’t skip this recipe if you don’t have access to brioche.

You can use white, wheat or artisan sourdough bread to make your tomato sandwich instead. However, we’ve found that toasted brioche provides ideal richness and structure against the mixture of tomatoes and creamy mayo.

Our love for chili crisp’s distinct umami flavor, crunchy texture and light piquancy is nothing new. We’re crazy about the spicy condiment which doesn’t overpower the tomatoes in this recipe. In fact, it enhances them.

There are many chili crisp brands on the market these days but we still love the old faithful standby – Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp. You should be able buy a jar at your local Asian market or you can buy a jar online.

While fresh tomatoes and brioche provide plenty of sweetness to a tomato sandwich, we found that a good tomato sandwich needs sour acidic flavors to counter that sweetness.

Fresh lime juice provides a tangy element without overwhelming the tomato’s unique flavor.

You don’t need to add much if any salt to the chili crisp lime mayo since there’s plenty of salt in both the mayonnaise and the chili crisp. The same goes for freshly ground white pepper.

However, don’t skimp when lightly salting the tomato slices. This step fully develop their flavor before you place them on your sandwich.

The beauty of this sandwich is that the ingredients provide flavor balance without overwhelming each other. And the sauce! It’s essentially a remoulade, i.e. a mayonnaise-based sauce with spices and fresh herbs.

Let’s go!

Add lime juice and mix until smooth. Add the chopped chives and stir until incorporated..

Spread the mayo on two slices of toasted bread per sandwich. We spread the mayo on the top and bottom sandwich slices (on the inside, of course) and you should do the same.

Hungry For More Comfort Food?