Broiled Cheese Toast with Tomatoes and Coriander

Intro

*This post is in partnership with Dietz & Watson. They believe that one of the best choices we can make is the table. To gather friends, family, strangers and sit at the table in the presence of good food.

A couple weeks ago I did just that. Surrounded by old and new friends we enjoyed a feast cooked for us by Top Chef alum, Giselle Wellman. We enjoyed the best tomato soup I’ve ever had along with thick cut grilled cheese croutons for dipping. There was crisp bacon over buttery lettuce, pastrami with duck breast, and a goat cheese stuffed blintz. Dietz & Watson would like you to enjoy that experience too. Enter here for a chance to win a private dinner with Giselle Wellman, September 9th in Gig Harbor Washington.

“We don’t come to the table to fight or to defend. We don’t come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir up trouble. We come to the table because our hunger brings us there. We come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity. The table is the great equalizer, the level playing field many of us have been looking everywhere for. The table is the place where the doing stops, the trying stops, the masks are removed, and we allow ourselves to be nourished, like children. We allow someone else to meet our need. In a world that prides people on not having needs, on going longer and faster, on going without, on powering through, the table is a place of safety and rest and humanity, where we are allowed to be as fragile as we feel.”

― Shauna Niequist, Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes

No matter where we are in life or what’s happening in the world around us I always come back to the table. Never once have I questioned the importance of the table. The act of sitting down to enjoy a meal, abundant or meager, looking into the faces of those you love or people you’ve just met. To come weary or strong, our humanity unites us. We all are hungry. Food is the medium to draw us together to refuel, connect, and attempt to make sense of the world or perhaps set that aside for a few hours to laugh until your stomach hurts.

With summer produce at its peak there is very little I feel I need to do before gathering people at the table. This toast, simple in its creation, is a cozy and satisfying way to highlight the glut of tomatoes currently bursting in the garden. A smokey horseradish adds a bit of warmth under a blanket of cheese, melted until bubbly and golden. Fresh tomatoes are showered on top with a crunch of toasted coriander seeds and flake salt. Bring a platter of warm toasts to the table and a simple salad of peppery arugula leaves slick with olive oil and lemon juice and you are set.

Let’s all choose the table as often as we can. Good things happen there.

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Broiled Cheese Toast with Tomatoes with Coriander

Prep 10 mins

Cook 5 mins

Total 15 mins

Author Ashley Rodriguez

Yield 4

Ingredients

4 pieces of thick cut bread

2 tablespoons Dietz & Watson Smokey Horseradish Sauce

8 pieces Dietz & Watson artisan cheese (I like a mix of havarti and muenster)

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

2 teaspoons toasted coriander seeds

Flake salt

Instructions

Set an oven rack just under your broiler. Place the bread on a sheet pan. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes or just until golden. Remove from the oven then spread the untoasted sides with a bit of horseradish sauce. Top with a couple of pieces of cheese then return the tray to the oven. Broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

Add the tomatoes, coriander seeds and a pinch of flake salt to each piece of toast.

Serve straightaway.