You know the adage about life, lemons and lemonade? Well, when life hands you a tomato blight, as it has in the Northeast this summer, make a BLP instead – bacon, lettuce and plum.
It was Melissa Clark’s idea and makes sense; tomatoes are technically a fruit and some fruits, such as plums, do well on the savory side of the street. Her version, which was in the New York Times, uses toasted white bread, garlic, fresh herbs and mayo. That’s not a combo that appeals to me.
The idea surely does, so I used white whole wheat mini rounds that are sold already sliced and a ginger paste; I love the fresh bite of ginger with stone fruits. I just lightly toasted the bread in a dry skillet so it wouldn’t become plank-hard. Whether you use her version, mine or devise your own, this is one of those fun recipes that’s a jumping-off point and is so unexpectedly good I almost don’t miss the local tomatoes I wait for each year.
Ella’s Bacon, Lettuce and Plum Sandwich
1 split mini pita or sandwich round, toasted
2 slices cooked bacon
several leaves of young lettuce
thin slices of ripe plum
1 – 2 tsp ginger paste with a pinch of cinnamon
Assemble and enjoy!
Makes 1 small sandwich
Copyright (C) 2009 From Scratch All Rights Reserved 
Print This Post
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, salty and sweet: what’s not to like! But I never thought of it for a B-L-T sandwich.
There are a couple of cold shabu shabu recipes (which can be made ahead) on my blog which combine fruit, vegetables, and meat. I was skeptical about how good they’d be but pork with grapefruit segments and beef with papaya are great
Here is a Finnish woman using kumquats in a tossed salad, which are really fine in the winter when tomatoes are so bad:
http://appelsiinejahunajaa.blogspot.com/2009/04/kumkvateista-ja-salaatista.html
She commented on my blog back in April so I checked out her site and she was posting about this interesting idea.
Tess´s last blog ..Hiyashi-shabu no Goma Dare
Hi, Tess! This is worth a try. I had them with and without the ginger paste, and the ginger is what elevates it.
Fruit with meat or poultry isn’t that rare. I’ve had it with Middle Eastern and French food and what would Thanksgiving turkey be without cranberry sauce? Kumquats are indeed an interesting idea — thanks for the link! I’ll check your shabu shabu too (and now that I think of it, I have a recipe here for pork with blood oranges which is amazingly good.)