Do not judge a book by its cover -- it does not look like much but this tastes of the essence of summer, and a surprisingly filling and satisfying summer dinner with a green salad on the side. All it requires is a perfectly ripe summer tomato and one, or two, slices of REALLY good bread, preferably sourdough in my opinion.
1 large summer tomato, farmers market or garden fresh if possible
1 or 2 slices best bread
1 clove garlic
2 tsps olive oil
Salt
Garden herbs to garnish if so desired
Place the olive oil in a frying pan along with the peeled and smashed clove of garlic. Set aside until needed.
Place a box grater into a bowl and grate the tomato on the medium grater side. All of the tomato pulp and seeds will go into the bowl and you will be left holding the skin which you can discard. Add some salt to the tomato pulp and set aside.
Heat the oil in the pan over low heat and add the bread to it. Toast gently on both sides until light, golden brown.
Discard the garlic clove. Place the toasted bread on a plate. Stir the tomato pulp to incorporate the juices back into the pulp. Spoon the tomato pulp onto the toast.
Feel free to drizzle on a little extra olive oil or garnish with some chopped basil if so inspired. I like this as is, in all its sweet tomato-ey goodness, usually eaten on the front porch while watching the birds frolic in one of the bird feeders.