Make your next BLT with basil and cheese, and you will never turn back. Serve it with pickles and chips, and you have something special on your hands – something you’ll really look forward to.
BLT with Basil and Cheese
2
sandwiches30
minutes10
minutes40
minutesIngredients
4 strips of thick-cut bacon
1 garden-fresh tomato
2 slices provolone
6-8 fresh basil leaves
Mayonnaise
Bread-and-butter pickles, for serving
Chips, for serving
Directions
- Cut the bacon in half. Starting with a cold pan, fry it over medium heat until crispy, turning it every 4 minutes at first, then every 2 as things get going. Pull the finished bacon out of the pan and set it aside on a plate lined with a quadruple thickness of paper towels. (Don’t overcrowd the pan. You may have to do this in batches.)
- Slice the tomato into quarter-inch slices. For slices on the stem end, remove and discard any remnant of the stem. Repurpose the final piece on the opposite end of the tomato.
- Toast the bread. You may have to do this in batches, and that’s OK – it doesn’t need to be warm in the final sandwich.
- Lay two pieces of bread on a work surface and distribute the bacon between them. Lay a slice of cheese over each. Use a kitchen torch on a low setting to melt the cheese. Distribute the basil over the cheese. Choose the best four tomato slices and distribute them over the basil. (Repurpose any remaining tomato.) Slather the two remaining slices of toast with lots of mayo; set aside for a moment. Fold 2 of the lettuce leaves until they’re the right size for the sandwich. Crush them down with your hand, to flatten them out a bit, if necessary. Hold them in place atop the tomatoes, and lay the mayo-slice on top. Press down somewhat gently to lightly compact the lettuce into the sandwich. Use a chef’s knife to cut the sandwich in half – on the diagonal, of course – using a straight-down motion with no sawing until you’re pretty sure you’ve gotten all the way through. Finish off the second sandwich in the same way.
- Serve with pickles and chips.
Notes
- Substitutions: 8 strips of regular-cut bacon for the thick cut. Mozzarella for the provolone.
Social Learning
Cutting the bacon in half (to make shorter pieces strips, not skinnier ones, duh) makes it easier to cook, and also makes the strips fit much more easily on the toast.
To remove the stem from the tomato slices, I use a pastry-cutting ring that is just large enough to do the job. (I have a set of nesting rings that come in handy for things like this.)
The cheese hefts the sandwich up without getting in the way of the classic BLT flavors. The basil adds such a perfect accent, that I can’t believe that BLTs don’t regularly include it. It seems to just embody the freshness of summer.
The pickles are a must. Their flavor perfectly balances the sandwich. But I don’t want them in the sandwich. I want to take a bite of pickle after every few bites of sandwich, as a kind of palate cleanser. I’m telling you, this touch alone elevates the whole experience into something special and memorable. This is the way. (If my Aunt Nancy made the pickles and gave you a jar, huge bonus.)
And of course, you’ve got to serve a good sandwich like this with chips. It makes you feel like you got the sandwich from a deli.
You could make this on white bread, but I really like it on multigrain.
Can you double the bacon? Do you really have to ask? I really should’ve doubled the bacon. Cooking the bacon makes this sandwich take a long time, but let me tell you: you should cook the whole package of bacon, and then keep the cooked slices in the fridge. Then you could have a BLT in as long as it takes to toast bread, pretty much. No need to warm the bacon; it’ll be fine straight from the fridge. Swap in turkey and you won’t believe how quickly this turns into a club sandwich!
Although I can’t believe I’m saying this pubically, this is still a good sandwich without the bacon, so long as the tomatoes are local and in-season.
The Backstory
This is my favorite BLT: the BLT-BC w/BBP&C, which means “bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich with basil and cheese, accompanied by bread and butter pickles and chips.”
I go to a nearby farmer’s market to get local tomatoes in late summer. They call them “dirt” tomatoes to distinguish them from hydroponic. They are just about as good as those that you’ll pull from a backyard garden.
BLT with Basil and Cheese
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Delicious!!!
Thank you, Mimi!
You’ve made another winner!
I had a good sandwich at a tavern tonight. sourdough slices, inside of which were gruyere, cheddar, tomato, arugula and thin slices of roasted butternut squash. The sandwich was grilled/toasted.
Wow, that sounds like an excellent sandwich. I should give that a try. It sounds perfect for this time of year.
Looks delicious!
Thank you!
I usually put basil on our BLT’s but I haven’t tried it with provolone. Now I must before tomato season is over with. It looks amazing.
I knew I couldn’t be the only one with the basil! It’s so good!
Loved your “duh” comment. But I know — we need to be clear. Sometimes it trips me up when I am writing a recipe. This sounds delicious, Jeff — and now that basil is ending its season (well, not here in the desert…), it is a great way to use it.
Haha! It’s really hard to write good instructions in an elegant way.
A BLT+BC makes perfect sense to me.
Thanks, Gary!
Great idea. I’ve still got a ton of basil in my garden.
🙂
Doubling the bacon is always a good idea – no, it’s a requirement. I’ve actually had basil on a BLT (delicious!), but I’ve never had basil and cheese. This needs to happen. I just got some tasty tomatoes from the farmer’s market, so I just need to cook up some bacon. Great idea, Jeff!
Enjoy!
I’ve got all the ingredients, just need to put it all together. Sounds like a really good sandwich.
Thanks, Karen!
I was just thinking I’d make grilled cheese for dinner tonight, but definitely going to pivot and make this instead. Sounds amazing!!
Now you’ve put me in the mood for a grilled cheese! With bacon!
This is a great way to use basil, I have heaps of it growing. I add it to dishes whenever I can. Great looking sandwich. Cheers, Pauline