The Ultimate BLT-Sandwich

It’s confession time. Along with all my other food obsessions, I can now add sandwiches, in every way, shape and form to that list. I’m not talking about a cheese sandwich on ‘plastic’ bread or a regular peanut butter & syrup sandwich, I’m talking about good quality breads topped with simple but great ingredients cooked/prepared with love and attention. It’s almost impossible to go wrong when you follow those guidelines.

Another confession, I never liked BLT sandwiches. They were always sub-standard and almost bland, the bacon being the only component to add any flavour. I felt the tomatoes washed out all the flavour and so steered clear of them since about 4 years ago. That was until I saw some dry-cured smoked streaky bacon from Woolworths last week and wanted to do something really special with it. The first and only idea I had was to make a BLT but I needed to amp it up.

I wanted to condense the tomato flavour and thought of making a really rich, chunky and thick tomato sauce but didn’t want this to make the sandwich too soggy or messy to eat. I then thought of roasting the tomatoes with garlic and thyme as I did this last year for a tart and the flavour was beautiful and intensely tomatoey. And this morning when I put “BLT” into Pinterest to see what it would bring up, what do I find? One of my recent food blog addictions, Not Without Salt did something very similar last year, roasted tomatoes and all. Great minds think alike I think!

The key to making a really great BLT is to make sure that the ingredients you use are of the best quality you can afford/find. Using so-so bacon, bland tomatoes, below par lettuce and regular bread is just not going to deliver the type of sandwich you are after. I decided to stick to using good ‘ol Iceberg lettuce as I like the unobtrusive flavour and nice crunch it adds. As far as the bread goes, I had some sourdough and decided to lightly toast it but you could use ciabatta or baguette as well. And then to finish it all off, I made a smoked chilli aioli as I feel it’s important to have some kind of mayo on the sandwich. You could also just add some crushed garlic and chopped chillies to good quality shop-bought mayo but making your own is of course, so much better!

Makes 2 large sandwiches

for the roasted tomatoes
4 ripe tomatoes, sliced into 1/2cm sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
4 sprigs of thyme
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
for the smoked chilli aioli (this quantity makes approximately 1 1/2 cups of aioli, keep the left overs in a airtight container in the fridge for up to a week)
3 extra large free range egg yolks
juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp each smoked and hot paprika
1/2 tsp crushed smoked chilli
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
250ml canola oil
to assemble the sandwich
250g smoked, streaky bacon, cooked to your preference (I like to grill it in the oven)
3 slices sourdough, lightly toasted in the oven
ice berg lettuce

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150°c and line a roasting tray with baking paper.
2. Place the sliced tomatoes on the baking paper, add the garlic, thyme and season with salt & pepper. Drizzle over the olive oil and place in the oven.
3. Allow the tomatoes to cook for 45 minutes to an hour until they are starting to look slightly dried out and the edges start to caramelise.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
5. To make the smoked chilli aioli, place the egg yolks, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, paprika, smoked chilli, sugar and salt in a blender and blend for 30 seconds until well combined.
6. Whilst blending, slowly pour the oil in a thin stream until half of the oil has been incorporated. The remaining oil can be poured in a little quicker as the mixture has already been emulsified at this stage. If your aioli seems very thick you can add a few tbsp of water to thin it out, just make sure that you blend it well. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
7. Scoop the aioli into a bowl and set aside.
8. To assemble the sandwich, dollop a generous amount of aioli onto 2 slices of toasted sourdough and spread to cover the bread.
9. Place a few leaves of Iceberg lettuce on top of the aioli followed by roasted tomatoes and cooked bacon.
10. Place the remaining slices of bread on top and cut in half.
11. Serve immediately.