This super simple tomato and cheddar sandwich will make great use of all those fresh August tomatoes, and has an easy-to-make and herb-packed basil mayo.

Tomato season is here! In June I posted some tips and tricks for keeping an inexpensive and low maintenance vegetable garden, and finally the time has come to reap the benefits of that garden! My tomatoes, squash and peppers are finally starting to ripen, and that means it’s time to come up with some recipes to use all that fresh produce. In the past I’ve made everything from oven roasted “sun” dried tomatoes to zucchini bread, but this year I wanted my first summer recipe of the year to be one that truly showcases fresh tomatoes: a tomato and cheddar sandwich with basil mayo. Cooking with fresh produce is great and all, but sometimes you want a recipe that really showcases the freshness of the fruit of vegetable, and that’s exactly what this simple sandwich does.

This tomato and cheddar sandwich is of course a play on the classic tomato and mayo sandwich. It’s an integral part of summertime cuisine, quick and easy to whip up on those lazy summer days when you don’t feel like doing anything but laying around in the yard. Of course, my version of this sandwich does jazz it up a bit. The addition of sharp cheddar really adds an extra kick of saltiness that offsets the sweet tomato perfectly, and the basil in the mayo is fantastic because really… is there any combination better than tomato and basil?

THE EASIEST OF “RECIPES”

This “recipe” is one of the easier one’s I’ve posted, but I couldn’t help but share it here because it truly is delicious, and the perfect way to showcase super ripe and fresh tomatoes. There’s a tiny bit of work involved in making the mayo (or aioli, if you want to be fancy), since you might want to whip out the food processor to blend everything evenly. But honestly you could just as easily roughly chop up some fresh basil and garlic with a knife, and give it a quick mix into the mayo with a squeeze of lemon juice.

After that it’s just a matter of assembly; extra sharp cheddar, thick slices of tomato, a spread of mayo, salt and pepper (a must) and a really nice loaf of bread to hold it all together. You can use whatever bread you like (I know the traditional tomato mayo sandwich uses a hearty whole wheat). But I happen to have some za’atar bagels that our friend Mary had dropped off the day before. The za’atar added the perfect zip of dried-herb flavor (very different from fresh herb flavor), so if you happen to have some za’atar laying around I would definitely urge you to give a sprinkle of it on this classic summer sandwich.