It's an open sandwich, but don't call it bruschetta, and its secret is butter. The recipe (to copy) that circulates on the web comes from New York. American things? No, already Pellegrino Artusi ...
"The best tomato sandwich is not a sandwich at all," headlined the American magazine Saveur and the thing could only intrigue. Tomato is a classic ingredient in summer snacks but it is actually an unpleasant beast to master: it is rich in water and difficult to bite if the slice is large, it runs everywhere if the tomatoes are small. Its place is on the knife-and-fork dinner plate... but it pairs so well with bread... that a New York chef has found the solution that could become a new Instagram trend. New? In fact, when searching the archives, Pellegrino Artusi was already making the sandwich. It's true, very Italian, with butter, but without tomatoes.
How to remake the American sandwich
Ignacio Mattos, the chef of the famous Estela restaurant in Manhattan, thus created an "open sandwich" as North Americans call it, that is, with only one slice of bread, in which the tomato appears prominently on the plate, hiding the other . ingredients: cheese with brie style flowers and a slice of cereal bread. The recipe contained in the book Estela (Craft Books) is quite simple and requires a thin slice of bread, very thin like the one you get with a slicer, to fry on both sides with a knob of butter (guaranteed, much better than oil at this point in the process). Once perfectly golden, you should spread the bread with the garlic clove, put thin slices of cheese on top and finally the steak-type tomato slices until it completely covers the bread and hides it at the end. Season with flaked salt and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
At first it was the TMT
It makes no sense to call it bruschetta, it is not because of the type of bread, because of the presentation, because of the cut of the tomato and because of the butter, the secret ingredient that gives that extra touch to many sandwiches eaten in the restaurant. Restaurant and it is soooo good. The bruschetta has the bread cut from a loaf and the tomato in small pieces, the tomato toast that they eat in the United States has the tomato in large slices and in their most popular recipe they want mayonnaise: TMT, in jargon, tomato. Mayo and tostadas, a classic. The version of chef Ignacio Mattos instead of the sauce in a jar spread a fine French cheese, much more chic and tasty. And it doesn't disdain butter like we do today.
The version extracted from the book Estela d'Artisan Book
Ya Artusi in recipe 114
Recipe 114 from the book that founded Italian cuisine, Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well. Pellegrino Artusi inserts the recipe for "Sandwiches" (spelled like this) in his famous volume of 1891 and describes it as follows: "Take a thin day-old bread, or rye bread, remove the crust from it and cut it into slices of ' It is half a centimeter thick and about 6 long and 4 wide. Spread them with fresh butter on one side only and stick them together by placing a thin slice of lean, fatty cooked ham or a salted tongue between the two.” For historian Alberto Capatti, such recipes “are a sample of the good customs of an Italian bourgeoisie that looked with respect on good habits and customs, born in England, widespread on the continent.” in the wide and appetizing variety of croutons served before or after the soup, according to Tuscan custom – writes in Panino Italiano – unlike these, sandwiches are not mentioned on Pellegrino Artusi's menus, confirming their occasional nature, suitable for an English tea or a picnic. At the Casa Artusi restaurant it is served at the author's request, with slow-cooked tongue (recipe 336) and green sauce (recipe 119). In fact, he would never have served it with tomatoes because raw vegetables are barely included in Artusi. Tomato in the bourgeois cuisine of the time is only an ingredient in sauces or served cooked, stuffed, and salads as we can imagine today not even the shadow but a recipe rich in other ingredients and seasoned with Russian mayonnaise. Paradoxically, therefore, the sandwich has always been part of our (bourgeois) culinary history, unlike tomatoes.
The version to make at home
Gli americani, and gli chef come Ignacio Mattos who has origini Uruguayan, hanno il pregio di guardare agli ingredienti del Mediterraneo with occhi nuovi and molto pratici, rendendo even a semplice toast an'esperienza gourmet, che può essere copied even home for a pranzo light. Dans une version plus italienne de la recette avec du brie, vous pouvez thinker au pecorino légèrement assaisonné, au caciocavallo ou, pourquoi pas, à la stracciatella, l'important qu'il puisse être étalé ou étalé comme des tomatoes pour couvrir toute the surface bread. . Even the typical Apulian ricotta scanca can work loud and knowledgeable, or taleggio, as long as it is of good quality. Details make all the difference even in a sandwich.
Food52's version with a photo by Bobbi Lin
