Tofu and Pesto-Mayo Sammich

Ok. So back a few months ago (four or five now, at this point) when I was still eating vegetarian (and not yet vegan), my absolute favorite sandwich used to be this sammich at my local sammich shop La Bodega that had fresh basil, tomatoes, a hunking slice of boccini, and pesto mayo, all on a couple large slabs of ciabatta. I was a bit sad when this occasional luncheon treat came to an end. There is little I like more on a sammich than fresh basil and ripe tomato.

BUT THEN!

This Saturday it dawned on me that maybe I could figure out some sort of alternative to satisfy this occasional craving. I had made and frozen some extra pesto (since I overbought basil on Friday) and I had a brand new jar of Veganaise in my fridge, so the gears in my brain started whirring. I nabbed some fresh rosemary bread that I had bought for Friday's dinner and sliced it up. I then topped it with some fresh basil leaves, some sliced roma tomatoes, and I mixed together some pesto and Veganaise and smeared it all oopy goopy on the other slice of bread. I then sliced up a leftover chunk of tofu into a couple thin slices and fried it up. Still piping hot, I slipped the tofu onto the sammich and chowed down while it was still steaming away.

Of course tofu doesn't have the same flavor as boccini, but it DOES have a remarkably similar consistency.

So Sunday, I tried again for both E and me. This time, I fried the tofu up in a tiny bit of olive oil and some rosemary. Much more flavorful though still not exactly like boccini, of course. But gorged on remarkably nummy pesto-mayo, I couldn't complain. Next time, I may try frying it up in a bit of lemon juice with rosemary and see how that goes. I also recommend pressing it because I'm certain it will fry up much better that way (I was just too hungry and lazy to do so on the weekend).

Any which way, this is a good sammich, and now I have a much lower-fat way to satisfy that La Bodega fix.

Sidenote: I have heretofore eliminated the VERDICTS section, mostly because it makes me sound like I'm tooting my own horn (which in turn sounds like a suspicious euphimism for, um, doing things to yourself that will make you get hairy palms). I will offer up suggestions, but no more ratings.