Comfort Food: Parmesan Toast with Tomatoes

I have mentioned some of my comfort foods before.  There's spaghetti with tamari and mushrooms and Mexican rice made the way my grandmother makes it. In this post, I talked about making spaghetti the way we always made it at home, and mom immediately emailed me asking "Is anything wrong?  Why are you reverting to your comfort food?"

One of the foods that was ubiquitous in our house growing up is shown in a pretty close rendition above:  bread with melted parmesan, tomatoes, and Vegesal.  In our childhood house, it was usually sourdough slices.  Today, I used Acme epi baguette, dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes from Ella Bella, and parmigiano reggiano.  I put the bread with parmesan under the broiler for a few minutes, and then added the tomatoes.

It's tempting to fancy it up with additional toppings or seasonings, but for it to be the comfort food of my childhood it basically needs to be only the ingredients above.  For me, the only allowed substitution is avocados instead of tomatoes if I have them.

Since I've moved to San Francisco, my comfort food repertoire has changed somewhat.  Now I include the following among my comfort foods:

• Pho from Yummy Yummy
• Beef bibimbap from My Tofu House
• Harvest Pork from Henry's Hunan
• Salmon wappa with ikura from Maki
• Lentil soup from Pizzetta 211
• Tacos al pastor from the El Novillo taco truck

I know that in American restaurants, comfort food dishes include meatloaf, short ribs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, but when it's my turn for comfort foods, I turn to dishes that are slightly more eclectic.

Comments

[Jen]

mmmmmm, bibimbap. Yummy!! Thanks for introducing me to this scrumptuous treat!

[sam]

I don't think I have tried any of those things. I might have to beg you to take me on a San Francisco "Comfort Crawl"

[jen's mom]

These are comfort foods because they were such default meals and snacks when you were growing up. A cynic would call going to our "default" foods "being in a rut." Your big-hearted soul knows about comfort...and love.

There is something so elegant about the scent of pasta boiling on the stove or parmesan and sourdough in the broiler.

The original spaghetti dish had green onion and mushrooms sauteed in a little olive oil before tossing in spaghetti and Tamari sauce. Any or all of that made for big yums.

I'm sorry that you need comfort food but happy that you have it.

[Diane]

Maki's salmon wappa w/roe is my comfort food too. I used to go there for Saturday lunches after a stressful week of business travel - heaven!

[cookiecrumb]

Did you know I dinged Kalyn for her devotion to VegeSal some time back? (I think I was friendly; I hope I was friendly!) I'm not even sure I've ever tried it myself; I'm just a snark.
I hope you are comfortably comforted.
And I and SO up with Sam on the comfort food crawl!

[Doug]

Those tomatoes look amazing.

My comfort food tends towards the simple as well - turkey sandwich on toast with tomato and avocado and bacon.