Confit Sungold Tomatoes with Almond Ricotta

"A crusty slice of bread, creamy ricotta, and tangy tomato confit make this dish perfect for any time of day. With its rich, herby flavors, it’s as impressive as it is easy to prepare.


 Strain ricotta if can’t buy pre strained or pressed ricotta (they sell it at Whole Foods I believe, this brand would be perfect https://bellwetherfarms. com/product/whole- milk-basket-ricotta/)"—

Tomato Confit Toast with Ricotta

"This is a delicious, seasonal recipe that’s been on my menus for several years. Finding quail can be a bit tricky, but I promise it’s worth the effort. Try to find them semi-boneless, to make the workload easier. They make for an impressive appetizer, or a light supper on their own with a bottle of young Chambolle Musigny. And remember! Leave the quails a little pink in the middle — there’s nothing worse than a gray, dry bird."—

Quail on Toast by Ed Szymanski

"This preparation is all about the anchovy. Salty, garlicky, and spicy. It's messy, oily, and addictive. This recipe actually was an accident. I had purchased some very fancy anchovies and was planning on just warming them to serve on toast, but they immediately liquified in the warm oil. And so I did what any rational person would do: I poured the resulting sauce onto a beautiful piece of toast and tasted it. So good, and among the easiest appetizers ever." —

Melted Anchovy Toast by Renee Erickson

Whether you call it crostini, tartine, or toast, there are many worthy toppings for the humble grilled bread. Avocados generally get all the credit here, but of course there are also nut spreads, cured meats, and cheese—there’s essentially nothing that doesn’t go well on toast. 

These particular toasts are topped with a minty pea spread, bright pink pickled onions, and crunchy pistachios. Yes, it’s a bit more effort than your run-of-the-mill avocado toast, but all the more impressive as well. The pea spread is bright green, creamy, and herbaceous, pickled onions bring a much needed kick of acidity and sweetness, and the pistachios add crunch. It’s best served on slices of crusty baguette, and if you slice the baguette on the bias you'll get more generous toast portions.

Petite peas (also called petit-pois) are preferred in this recipe. The smaller peas are sweeter, more tender, and less starchy than standard green peas—and they cost about the same! Find them in the freezer aisle next to the standard peas. If fresh peas are available, all the better, although you may prefer the convenience of frozen (no shelling necessary).

The spread will keep in the fridge for about four days and the pickled onions will keep for up to two weeks (both can be made ahead for quick and easy assembly). Serve these toasts at your next dinner party, or enjoy them alongside a salad for a light lunch. 

Minty Pea Toasts With Pickled Onions

Note from the editor on November 28, 2022:

 After reading the feedback on this recipe, we understand that we made a mistake here and we apologize to our community. We have updated the title as well as the author's note to demonstrate that Fairy Bread was a source of inspiration for this dish but is in no way reflective of the beloved classic. We're constantly striving to publish thoughtful food content—we value and appreciate our community, and thank you for your feedback.

 Perfect for dessert or an afternoon treat, this recipe starts with Sara Lee®'s new White Made with Veggies Bread (hello, sneaky vegetables) and layers on sweetened mascarpone cheese plus a super-quick fruit compote. The addition of sprinkles was inspired by one of the signature elements of Fairy Bread—a crunchy-sweet combo of white bread, butter, and sprinkles from Australia and New Zealand—but the ones shown here are different from the colorful, round sprinkles (known as "hundreds and thousands") traditionally used.

Mascarpone & Jam Toast With Sprinkles

My mom makes these for my kids as an afternoon snack. It's a nice alternative to sweets. Be brave with the mayonnaise -- you need a lot. Go easy on the paprika. Or just skip it. The most exciting part of these toasts is biting through the hot melted cheese and BAM there's this comforting and warm layer of mayonnaise. It's very much like melted butter. But better.

Cheese Toasts

If a tuna sandwich met tomato toast—both of which happen to be on the list of my top summer meals—you’d get this tuna and tomato number. It’s crunchy, it’s juicy, it requires just one pan (and that’s literally only for making toast). It’s a simple tuna salad on garlic-rubbed toast, topped with tomatoes, but not just any tomatoes: tomatoes dusted with fennel seeds, cumin, and chile flakes. This mega-simple meal is the answer for several summer situations: You’re having a lazy, sweaty evening at home; you’re at a beach or lakeside rental with minimal kitchen equipment; you’re camping but plan to eat like you’re glamping. Plus, it’ll run you just $10. Let's talk about the stars here, tuna and tomatoes, two ingredients that can either be quite cheap or quite pricey; oftentimes quality is the biggest factor. When it comes to 

, oil-packed tends to be more expensive by several dollars than water-packed. I’d typically go for the former, but when the tuna’s getting mixed with mayo and slathered on oil-toasted bread, there’s really no need for the additional fat, even if the flesh tends to be slightly more tender. Still, water-packed options are even cheaper when the tuna was less sustainably caught, so I feel it’s as important to read the label as it is the price tag—my research has led me to 

, which is $1.99 per 5-ounce can (you’ll need two for this recipe) and 100 percent pole- and line-caught—there are indeed cheaper and more expensive tunas on the market; as always with this column, I recommend you buy what’s best for your budget. Break up the tuna with mayo, chopped red, celery, and dill pickles ($1). Moving on to tomatoes. While I have personally dropped $25 in a single visit to the farmers market on the heaviest, juiciest heirloom tomatoes that practically burst at the slightest nudge (they’re only like this once a year in New York!), you don’t need the 

 perfect tomatoes to make this sandwich taste like summer on a plate—the spices, which you’ll likely have on hand, plus a hefty shower of salt and pepper, make even winter tomatoes seem less sad. That said, you need only a couple small or one big 'mater for this meal, which will run you less than $2 at the farmers market or the grocery store, so I say buy the good ones if you can. Next, you’ll toast bread—I like thick slices of country-style pullman or rye ($2 for four) for this, fried into toast with a bit of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet. Pile on the tuna and the seasoned tomatoes, and then open a bag of potato chips. So integral are the chips ($1) to this meal that I’ve formally factored them into the final price tag. Skip them if you want, but know you’re missing out. If you want to spend another buck or two (or happen to have some in the fridge!), make this a melt by adding 2 ounces of shredded cheddar: After toasting the first side of the bread in Step 3, flip it and carefully rub the toasted side with garlic. Pile on the tuna, then sprinkle over the cheese and cover with a lid to melt, then finish with the tomatoes. Happy toast season, one and all!

Tuna Toasts With Spice-Dusted Tomatoes

This is a substantial sandwich,tender flank steak that I marinaded in chimichurri and pan seared.  I grilled the brioche that's cut extra thick, made a chimichurri mayonnaise, and added slices of fresh tomato. The steak would be equally delicious grilled. - sdebrango

Flank Steak on Texas Toast with Chimichurri

This is a favorite time of the year for me, with Diwali, Thanksgiving, and Christmas celebrations lined up one after another. I’ll take any excuse to cook for my friends and family. This season will be even more special, after the year we've all had, so I am going to have a little party and make the most of it. These cheesy, herby shrimp toasts are definitely something I’ll be cooking. They are super simple to put together—you can prepare all the bits beforehand and finish them a couple of minutes before serving. Serve these on their own or with a dip of your choice (go for something spicy). 

Herby Shrimp Toasts

You read correctly. Try it and you’ll be a believer too. This decidedly fantastic take on toast couldn’t be easier to prepare, or more delightful. Plus, this makes an excellent choice for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. These toasts are ideal summer fare: they come together fast, can be eaten with your hands, and requires hardly any cooking—all you need to do is to render bacon crispy in a skillet and toast a few slices of bread. Sweet, juicy peaches are the perfect foil to salty, fatty bacon. The tahini adds a subtle creamy nuttiness, and all together, it just might become your new favorite flavor combo. 

Peach, Bacon, & Tahini Toasts

Ricotta is a cheese of versatility. You can add it to a pasta dish for a creamy filling or mix it into a smooth sauce. You can add dollops to a pizza or bake it into a savory lasagna. Here, this lush, fluffy ricotta meets a crisp slice of sourdough for the perfect customizable appetizer. The base is simple: whip up ricotta in a food processor with some olive oil, salt, and pepper until fluffy and smooth. You can either buy store-bought ricotta, or make your own. Once your ricotta is spread onto the crunchy bread, the options are endless! 

Whipped Ricotta Toast

Over the past 30 years, avocado toast has been the subject of culty obsession, disbelieving derision, and often both at once. This mashed-fruit-on-bread has turned into an edible example of Instagram culture, and culinary appropriation and gentrification. A brief history: Avocado toast became 

 in 2011, thanks to Jessica Koslow’s all-day Los Angeles café, Sqirl. Koslow had adopted the toast (and good vibes) from another all-day cafes in Australia. And before all this, avocado glut plus tortilla was so ubiquitous a snack in pre-colonial Mexico (bread was introduced by European colonists during the 1500s), that it seemed silly to call it a trend, let alone develop a recipe. But here we are, in 2020, giving you one. You don’t have to go to a hip café, bakery, or restaurant to enjoy good avocado toast. You can and should make it at home—and often. First, the bread: nothing too soft, too white, or too fluffy. Go for a seedy, square, and wheaty loaf from your local bread baker. An aggressive toast protects against an all-mush experience, provides a better base for mashing against, and brings toasty, roasty flavors to the creamy, fresh party. I personally love the dry, hard toast that a toaster provides, but feel free to fry your bread in a bit of olive oil in a cast-iron skillet. When it comes to the avocado, you don’t have to go so far as creating a 

. I’m team slice-and-mound, versus purée-and-mound (this is not guacamole toast, after all). The slicing creates distinct chunks of creamy avocado, while the slight mashing adheres the avocado to the toast, keeps everything intact while you nosh. As for toppings, go as simple or extravagant as your morning (or afternoon or evening) allows. I’m equally happy eating avo toast topped with a poached egg, aleppo pepper, and spicy olive oil, as I am eating one with only salt and pepper off a kitchen towel. The template below is wonderful as is, or you could build up from there. Consider: watery-crisp ribbons of veg, nutty and seedy sprinkles, fluffy herbs, an oozy egg.

Avocado Toast

To soothe babies and large adult children. Gentle friends for scrambled eggs: Creamed other veg: Swap out leeks for hearty greens, mushrooms, scallions, or tomatoes. Soft like Ship’s Biscuit: Add ricotta to your toast before adding the eggs, like the Ship’s Biscuit sandwich at the now shuttered Saltie in Brooklyn that smushed ricotta and scrambled eggs between focaccia. You barely had to chew. Pockets of tang: Add dollops of spoonable dairy (yogurt, sour cream, crème fraîche) into the almost-ready skillet of eggs. Stir just once to melt slightly, then as you eat, you’ll find the dollops warm and cozy in their hiding spots. 

Creamed Leeks & Eggs

When I’m feeling hungry and I don’t want to make anything too involved, this is a recipe that I turn to. The pillowy brioche toast, the creamy ricotta, and the interplay of acidity (from the lemon), sweetness (from the honey), and spice (from the black pepper) all work together to create a bite of food that is deeply satisfying. This quick and easy recipe is perfect for breakfast, snacks, or even a passed hors d'oeuvre at a party. Don’t let the simplicity of this dish obscure the fact this it is absolutely delicious.

The quality of the brioche and the ricotta is key to this recipe. Whenever there are only a few ingredients in a recipe, those ingredients must be the highest quality.

Ricotta Toast

Adapted from M.F.K. Fisher's milk toast recipe.

Milk Toast

Reprinted with permission from 'Miss Maggie’s Kitchen: Relaxed French Entertaining' (Flammarion, 2020). Photo by Christophe Roué from Miss Maggie’s Kitchen (Flammarion, 2020)

Pumpkin Soup With Porcini Crostini

Artichokes are often called in as a meat slash fish substitute, thanks to their meaty slash fishy (you know, in a good way!) texture. Which makes it all the more 

 when you pair them with oil-packed tuna. Because they’re marinated, these artichokes already have a shipping-container-load of flavor. And their tangy, herby vinaigrette serves as the dressing we no longer need to make. In fact, you don’t even need salt or pepper in this recipe, a sentence I have never typed, and will probably never type again. If cheddar isn’t your scene—or you don’t have it around—pepper jack, provolone, Swiss, or low-moisture mozzarella would all be great. And any bread works, but something fluffy and plush, like brioche or challah, is especially awesome.

Tuna Artichoke Melt

I know what you’re thinking. This is just avocado toast, um, with tuna. And you’re right. It is. But it’s also not. Because when you add tuna—in all its meaty, oily, umami-y glory—the whole picture shifts, like an optical illusion. It’s avocado toast, but with way more flavor, way more oomph, way more, “Yeah, I can make it through my afternoon of meetings!” At the same time, it’s tuna salad toast, with the decadence of a homemade mayonnaise, without all the work of a homemade mayonnaise (thank you, buttery avocado). It’s the best of both worlds. Make this once, and I have a hunch you will never need to visit this recipe page again. But that’s okay. That’s good. That’s great. Because my favorite recipes are the everyday ones I make over and over and over, until I forget where they even came from, almost like they were always part of my messy life. I hope that happens to you, too. Psst: If you want a more avocado-y situation, you can use a large avocado, then stretch this to 3 to 4 slices of bread. I like a dense, seedy, grainy loaf here, but anything works. 

Tuna Avocado Toast

Learning to poach eggs will serve you for many years to come. It may take you a time or two to get the poaching right (see technique, below), but before long, you’ll master the firm whites and runny yolks that are the hallmarks of perfectly poached eggs, coveted by brunch aficionados. For a new way to enjoy poached eggs, try them over toast with mackerel fillets in mustard. 

Mackerel & Poached Egg on Toast

Have your own nostalgia-perfect tomato sandwich today, and tomorrow. But on day three—do this instead. Chef Ignacio Mattos and the team at Estela restaurant in Manhattan have created something new—bolder, crispier, juicier, dare we say better. Adapted slightly from 

Estela's Tomato Toast

This sandwich is a joyously messy experience and nostalgic even if you didn’t grow up in England eating raspberry ripple ice cream (which is vanilla with a raspberry swirl, for the rest of us). The recipe originally comes from 

, Slater’s book full of simple, narrative recipe ideas, leaving the amounts to your taste and imagination. This mini recipe is adapted slightly from 

 (Ten Speed Press, September 2018), one of 7 ways to turn a loaf of bread into dessert.

Nigel Slater’s Raspberry Ripple Sandwich

Another avocado toast recipe? We hear you. But this isn't anything like your run-of-the-mill avocado toast. Apollonia Poilâne's avocado tartines with banana and lime are the unexpected breakfast pick-me-up you had no idea you needed. For one thing, the pairing of banana and avocado is surprisingly perfect, with the sweetness of the banana and the greener flavor of the avocado bouncing off of one another. And yes, a recipe so good that it doesn't need salt? We were just as skeptical as you—but trust Apollonia. The layers of seasoning in the form of lime juice and zest, chile flakes, and honey make the salt unnecessary. Try it before you add salt, we can almost guarantee you won't miss it. A little tip from Poilâne for toast that holds well (especially good for making it ahead for a crowd): To achieve a crusty toasted side and a nice, soft interior that won't dry out, Apollonia recommends toasting just one side of the bread. Place the two slices together in one slot of your toaster, or toast just one side in a pan or griddle or under a broiler. Recipe slightly adapted from 

 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 2019)

Avocado Tartines With Banana & Lime From Apollonia Poilâne

It's like peanut butter toast...but tahini-er!  This is one of my favorite super speedy breakfasts or snacks.  I got the idea from Jess, of Sweet Amandine.  This isn't so much a recipe as an assembly process, using amounts of everything to suit your taste.  The one thing to know is don't omit the salt or the tahini will taste bitter and not nearly as scrumptious as it could be.

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