the strawberry caprese

Someone told me recently (or I read it on Buzzfeed, in any case some RELIABLE source #accuratereporting) that this year was poised to yield the very best strawberry crop in decades. Why? I haven't looked into it, but it's kept me with strawberries on the brain all summer. I just want to eat them all the time, make tarts, crisps, and pie, put them in salads, and start a jam factory in my apartment.

Alas, like most summer resolutions, this has gone almost entirely unattended. So here, to make it's debut in my summer, a strawberry featured sandwich, that is not gluten-free, so I couldn't fucking eat it anyway. But not to worry, this was one of the birthday sandwiches, so my parents were there to eat it, and tell me how nice it was. Hopefully this is not the last you'll be seeing of strawberry sandwiches this summer, and maybe(?) I will get around to making that jam. 

Been really wanting to make this one for a while. I made sure to get the best of the best for it. My parents were kind enough to bring over their ever-there quart of fresh strawberries from the farm near our cottage, and I foraged the city for the nicest looking, juiciest heirloom tomato I could find. Here's what else is in this:

baguette

strawberries

heirloom tomato

red leaf lettuce

purple basil

oro nero cheese

balsamic vinegar

honey

garlic

butter

Traditionally, the term "caprese"refers to the combination of tomato + basil + mozzarella. I wasn't feeling that keene on mozzarella, so I opted for this oro nero cheese from my local fromagerie. It's closer to a parmesean/romano/asiago than anything, so I sliced it thin, but it's a decidedly more present cheese in the sandwich than would have been something more... benign. 

I mixed some honey with some balsamic vinegar to top the strawberries. Forgot to get it in the photo. 

How good looking is that tomato. Fuck, I love eating foods you can pick out of a garden. That's my own basil btw. 

I let the garlic sizzle on low for a little, in a pan with butter. Then I put the sandwiches directly into it, so there's sort of an outer garlic bread going on.

I didn't get to taste this, but there were nods of approval.