Tomato-Basil Tea Sandwiches

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      If you saw my Instagram post this past weekend, you would have seen that I am so excited about it being the time of year when tomatoes start to get ripe on the garden vines.  Now I am even more excited because my DIL's mom, Anita, gave me some special tomatoes that she is growing.  They are called San Marzano.

     As you can see, San Marzano are an elongated tomato and they are very fleshy with fewer seeds or watery juices. They also have lower acidity, so if you have trouble as I sometimes do with a sore tongue after eating tomatoes, these will be better for you. (Even with a sore mouth, I love tomatoes so much, I eat them anyway!)  Anita uses San Marzano to can tomato sauce and finds them to be the best for that application because the large amount of flesh lends them to making a thick, rich sauce.  Anita is Italian, she knows her sauce, so I trust her when she says that these tomatoes are the best for tomato sauce! But, if you need more proof, you can purchase San Marzano Tomato sauce if you don't want to make it yourself. It really is touted as the best by many chefs. Or, you can buy some San Marzano seeds to grow your own plants next year! 
      Today I am using my tomatoes in a different way.  I wanted to showcase these beautiful, red, fresh tomatoes because this is the time of year to enjoy them that way! These Tomato-Basil Tea Sandwiches are perfect for a bridal shower or baby shower or a mid-morning brunch!  The basil spread can be made in advance and the bacon....Yes! I said bacon, can be crisped and crumbled in advance, but the assembly should be done just before the event. That is when you will thinly slice the tomatoes and prepare your bread.  Here is what the San Marzano tomatoes look like sliced.  

Lay the slices on paper towels to drain a little. San Marzanos don't need a lot of draining.

You can see that there are very few seeds.

    See how fleshy those tomatoes are?  If you don't have San Marzano, you can use cherry tomatoes. 

    Any type of bread may be used as the base.  I used a Tomato Basil loaf from Panera, staying with the Tomato-Basil Sandwich theme.  The nice thing is that the bread is firm and holds up to the toppings, even with the crust cut off.  Since Panera makes a large sized loaf, I cut the slices in half and then removed the crust to make them all fairly uniform. I also considered a sour dough loaf which I think would also be a delicious alternative. 

Panera Tomato Basil Loaf. You could also cut circles or other shapes. I just did squares that are about palm size.

Tomato-basil Tea Sandwiches

They look pretty on the platter. I simply used a couple sprigs of basil flowers on my tray. They are edible!

      Oh! I was so excited about the tomatoes, I forgot to mention that the basil is from my garden!  I cut off the blossoms to send the energy back to the leaves.  They make a pretty garnish, or you can dry them to use later as a dry basil spice.  

I can't get over how vibrant and pretty these fresh, vine ripened tomatoes look! I love the simple basil blossoms.