After a busy summer day of working remotely, running, swimming, and gardening, my brother and I were just about spent. We’d picked up some atomic grape tomatoes from Starlight Garden’s farm stand in Madison earlier that day and weren’t quite sure what to do with them. Per usual, I was thinking of ways we could use what we had kicking around in the fridge while my brother was thinking of some NYTC recipe he’d read which called for a bunch of ingredients we didn’t have. We were too tired to argue much, so I peeked in the fridge and exclaimed, “I’m going to make a whipped cream cheese pesto spread!” He seemed unconvinced by this idea, but instead of protesting, he got straight to work caramelizing an onion in balsamic vinegar. I didn’t question him. He’s an onion cooking expert! By the time we both finished our little cooking projects, we had wonderfully toasted sourdough slices, a rainbow of sliced tomatoes, deeply caramelized balsamic onions, and a fluffy pesto spread, all ready to assemble. From there, we dolloped the spread on top of each slice, layered on the onions, and topped it with fresh tomatoes and a crack of peppercorn. We really had no idea how it was going to turn out but our leap of faith proved worthwhile when we took our first bites. A seriously good and simple dish was born from our hungry stomachs and sun-beat brains. Moral of the story: be inventive in the kitchen and you may discover many unexpectedly delicious flavor combos you’d have never experienced from reading from a professional chef’s blog.
Ingredients
8 toasted slices of sourdough bread
2 oz organic cream cheese
4-5 tbsp homemade pesto
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
dash of salt and cracked peppercorn
10 oz atomic grape tomatoes
Instructions
With an electric mixer set on medium speed, whip together cream cheese and pesto until smooth and fluffy, and set aside in the fridge.
Add olive oil to a small frying pan over medium heat. Once hot, add onions, salt, and pepper and stir occasionally until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Then, stirring less frequently, let onions brown until moderately caramelized. Add in your balsamic vinegar, turn heat to medium-low, and continue to carmelize for about 10 minutes.
Thickly slice tomatoes lengthwise.
To assemble, toast slices of sourdough and generously spread your whipped pesto on top. Add a layer of balsamic onions and top with tomato slices. Crack peppercorn and sprinkle sea salt on top.