When it's hot and sticky outside nothing is worse than having to heat up the kitchen to make dinner. Easy summer recipes like this one come to the rescue!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Quick and easy meal that uses seasonal produce at its best!
- There's just something about a classic southern tomato sandwich, y'all - this is summer comfort food.
- Fresh tomatoes are prolific and inexpensive in the summer months.
The perfect tomato sandwich is a simple recipe that is a summer staple around our house. It's easy, it's budget friendly, and it's instant gratification with the first bite.
This classic sandwich is to summer what a grilled cheese sandwich is to winter months!
🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
Super simple ingredients but together they create magic. It's extremely important to make sure that the tomatoes are fully ripe and full of flavor for this sandwich to work.
🔪 Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. Full instructions are in the green recipe card at the bottom of the page.
Always start your tomato sandwiches with a vine ripe tomato - and remember... this is a seasonal thing. You can't make a good one in the middle of winter!
- Choose your tomato carefully - this is where the flavor comes from!
- Slice it thin. Although some people like thick tomato sliced I find that the thinner slices give me more flavor.
- Put a good layer of mayonnaise on the bottom bread.
- Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
- Layer on the tomato slices as thick as you like.
- More salt and pepper.
- Spread more mayonnaise over the top slice of bread and put it, mayo side down, on the tomatoes.
- Give it a gentle press with your hands.
- Cut diagonally and serve.
🎥 Video
Click on the image to watch me make this recipe from start to finish with extra tips! (Video opens in a new tab).
🥫 Storage
There is no storing of a tomato sandwich.
🍅 Best tomatoes for slicing
If you're growing ripe, juicy tomatoes you've got the opportunity to plant varieties in your own garden specifically for making into sandwiches, you lucky dog!
Here are my favorites:
- Mortgage Lifter
- Cherokee Purples
- Porterhouse
- Ace 55
- Big Boy
- Beefsteak Tomato
If your choices depend on what's at the local grocery store or farmer's market then look for firm, heavy fruit without bruises. Try different types of tomatoes until you find exactly what you like.
📖 Variations
- Add fresh basil leaves - not classic but so good.
- OR chop it up into mayonnaise for a delicious basil mayonnaise mixture.
- Some people like Miracle Whip instead of mayo.
- Change up the type of bread. Try this tomato swirl bread, for example.
💭 Things to know
There are a lot of fancy updates on the simple tomato sandwich. Honestly, it's best when kept simple. I've seen instructions to peel the tomatoes first... and y'all?
...that's crazier than a cat in a catnip patch. Just slice the darn thing and be done with it.
Expert Tip: Keep your tomatoes at room temperature. They will have more flavor!
- Eat it fast. Once it's made it gets soggy quick.
- If you are worried about your tomato sandwich getting soggy you should try toasting the bread.
- Fleur de Sel is one fancy upgrade on kosher salt that is really worth doing. So yummy!
- Heirloom tomatoes have a lot of flavor variations so try different types to see what you like.
- Try different kinds of bread!
- Another summer favorite for me is to layer creamy cucumber salad on white bread to make a sandwich. Try it!
- A quick drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil is a nice touch.
👩🍳 FAQs
Whatever they are they need to be very ripe - vine ripened is best. A large, meaty slicing tomato is best. I like Cherokee Purple (an heirloom) but Beefsteak is fine, too. See more information below.
That's up to you. I prefer my bread untoasted - but it does make the sandwich soggier and messier. Try it both ways and see what you prefer.
That's really a matter of preference. I like mine sliced about ¼ inch thick and layered on the sandwich. Some people like to add big, thick slices. Try it both ways and see which you prefer.
I think it is a country thing more than a southern thing. Just about any family that has access to homegrown tomatoes has eaten a juicy, drippy, messy tomato sandwich.
📚 Related recipes
- Deviled ham salad is another southern classic!
- You might like this omg-good chicken salad with pecans and grapes.
- As far as I'm concerned this is the ONLY way to make tuna salad.
- And don't forget - pimento cheese!
🍽️ Serve with...
Honestly? Serve with just a good slice of watermelon that's icy cold and a little salt.
📞 The last word
Summer. Hot, dusty country roads. The buzz of tree frogs on an afternoon so humid you can drink the air... and ripe tomatoes, straight from the vine - still hot from the sun.
No matter how weird life gets there's something about memories like this that keep me grounded, how about you?
Summer in Texas is unique.
Today, for example, the heat index was 119F. For the most part once we hit mid-July our most popular activities are complaining and sitting close to the air conditioner.
Often at the same time.
So while y'all that live in the cooler, northern states might enjoy activities like croquet, bocce ball, or hiking, we are pretty much inclined to believe we'll die of heatstroke if we do anything more strenuous than lift a glass to our lips.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Tomato Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 Tomato
- 1 tablespoon Mayonnaise
- 2 slices Bread
- Salt and Pepper
Instructions
- Slice your tomatoes about ¼ inch thick.
- Spread half the mayonnaise on the bottom slice of bread.
- Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
- Layer on the tomatoes. As much as you'd like.
- Add more salt and pepper.
- Spread the other slice of bread with the remaining mayonnaise and put it on top of your sandwich.
- Slice on the diagonal.
- Eat promptly!
Notes
- Eat it fast. Once it's made it gets soggy quick.
- If you are worried about your sandwich getting soggy you should try toasting the bread.
- Fleur de Sel is one fancy upgrade that is really worth doing. So yummy!
- Heirloom tomatoes have a lot of flavor variations so try different types to see what you like.
- Try different kinds of bread!
- Another summer favorite for me is to layer creamy cucumber salad on white bread to make a sandwich. Try it!
Nutrition Facts
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published July 17, 2020. Last updated June 27, 2022 for readability and editorial updates.
Courtenay
Thanks for the memory. The first time I ate one was in the late fifties at a friend's house. We went out to the garden and picked a large ripe tomato and her mother sliced it and put it on buttered white bread. Heavenly 😊
Bryan Coates
Horrors, no butter? It's an absolute crime to make any kind of sandwich without sealing both slices of bread with a layer of butter or margarine and then mayo or miracle whip, if you're so inclined, although I believe mayo is far superior. Maybe this is a northern thing as I'm a Canadian. We had a couple from South Carolina and she made her daughter, simple butter sandwiches! Again, horrors! Nothing but butter!
MARGARET
One of my favorite sandwiches since childhood... I like to spread a very thin layer of butter on the bread slices before applying mayo...... helps to keep sandwich from being so soggy.
SUSAN J TURCSANY
Have loved fresh garden tomato sandwiches all my life. I make mine exactly like you do. Use plain white bread and don't toast it. I usually use Beefsteak tomatoes from my garden but also tried Black Krim (heirloom tomatoes) which I planted this year. They were great too!
Carol Bennett
I love it just the way you wrote it! Hubby insists on Duke's....I prefer Miracle Whip. If I'm going to toast my bread, all I put on the toast is butter and sliced tomatoes.
Of course it goes without saying that no matter which way you cut the maters or slap the sammich together, that's all you need besides a little salt and pepper and a big napkin!
Marye
My mom used Miracle Whip, too.
Deb Clark
We live on tomato sandwiches in the summertime, honestly there's nothing better. This is the perfect summer meal! p.s. I keep a salt shaker now in the garden, so when I harvest that perfect tomato, I rinse it in the hose, salt it and pop it in my mouth. No one's the wiser! 😉
Marye
Agreed!