How to: Make a Winter BLT Worth Eating

I’m sure I’m not alone in proclaiming: the BLT is a perfect sandwich. Not because it has bacon; many sandwiches have bacon. Rather, it’s what it does with the bacon, playing it off of the other requisite parts: crunchy lettuce, a spread of tangy mayo, toasted but-not-too-crunchy bread, and the bright, acidic summer tomatoes.   

Summer tomatoes, that key ingredient that makes the sandwich more than the sum of its parts. Summer tomatoes, that are only available for about 12 weeks out of the year, reducing the BLT to a seasonal treat. Summer tomatoes, who simply taste nothing like the greenhouse-grown, gas ripened supermarket options available late fall-early summer.

But, those orange-y/pink paste tomatoes available year round don’t have to sink your sandwich. With a little creativity, you can transform them into something BLT worthy, indeed. 

To do so, Not Without Salt recommends turning to your oven to do what the sun cannot – make your tomatoes sweet, tangy, and delicious. They say, “Rather than trying to wait for the flavor to magically develop with the aid of a brown paper bag, which would merely hint at the tomatoes I will be tasting in a few months, I decided these orange tomatoes needed several hours in a warm oven. There they concentrate into a sweet acidic bite that perfectly accompanies bacon and lettuce sandwiched in between two pieces of lightly toasted bread.”

I’m convinced. Headed to the grocery store now. Get the full recipe and technique at Not Without Salt – B L (Slow-Roasted) T