The perfect BLT requires the perfect bread!

Lets face it - we all love the humble BLT. It's got the toothfully yielding texture of a great bread, spread thinly with mayonnaise, crispy greens, succulent tomato, and the star, thick-cut smoked bacon. Fatty, crispy, salty... everything delicious in a simple package.

What can augment this singular masterpiece? The perfect slices of bread. In this case, I used a gruyere and chive bread that I brought back from Con Pane this past weekend. The result was... uuuunh.

Boyfriend says it rivals his grandfather's BLT.

It's a great, quick weekday dinner.

The Perfect BLT
Serves 2

• 4 slices thick cut crusty bread, very lightly toasted
• 6 slices hickory smoked, thick cut bacon
• 2 large handfuls fresh spinach
• 2 Roma tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp mayo

Cook bacon in the oven at 450F until crispy. Wrap in several paper towels and squeeze the grease out. I find this leaves the bacon much less greasy than letting it sit on paper.

Spread 1 Tbsp mayo on 2 slices of bread. Pile on a handful of fresh spinach (no WAY will you use frozen spinach in this!) on top of the mayo so it sticks. Slice the roma tomatoes thickly, and spread slices on top of the spinach. Layer on 3 strips of bacon on each sandwich, and slice in half.

I barely got a photo in before boyfriend DEVOURED it.


Photos by Ben : heliotrope.ucsd.edu