Tomato Stacks

Summer tomatoes are so meaty they can almost take the place of steak. (I said almost…) I picked up a couple of big, juicy tomatoes from the farmers market last week. They were so beautiful they needed to stand on their own, not be mixed with a bunch of greens.

I had some basil and garlic fromage frais from Brookford Farms and some A-1 guacamole, both from the market too. 

Tomato stacks can be made with other produce, too. Try grilled eggplant or zucchini. This is a good recipe to use up leftover grilled corn. If you don’t have grilled corn handy just use an indoor grill pan and toss in about 1/2 c frozen kernels with some EVOO.

What you need:

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 large tomato, cut into 8 1/2”-thick slices
• 1 corn, grilled and kernels removed
• 4 tbs basil and garlic fromage frais (or herbed goat cheese)
• 4 tbs guacamole
• Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

What you do:

• Preheat indoor grill pan to high heat.
• Brush tomato slices with EVOO and sprinkle with salt.
• Add garlic and tomato slices to grill pan.
• Grill tomato on one side for a few min; you just want to heat and soften the tomato. Be careful of burning and falling apart.
• Remove from heat.
• On individual serving plates alternate layers of tomato, cheese and avocado on 4 plates, ending with avocado.
• Drizzle corn on each.
• Season with salt and pepper.