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For when all you want to eat during the summer is caprese made from fresh garden grown tomatoes, but you need some protein too.

I don’t normally serve toast for dinner. I try to cook up a “real” meal for Spouse and I in the evenings but I must say that this toast recipe is definitely dinner status. Maybe it was a little overkill to use such a nice cut of steak for toast, but it tasted really good so I have no regrets. I also didn’t want the risk of us biting into the toasts, and having fatty bits dragging too much steak along with the bite because we couldn’t cut through cleanly with our teeth.

There are a few phases to making these but the good news is that it all gets done in the same cast iron pan. And in the end, you’ll have a world of flavor—tender steak with richness from the butter it was seared in, crunch and carbs from the toast, creaminess from burrata, fresh herbaceousness from basil, and brightness from burst tomatoes tossed in a quick vinaigrette. ⁣

Ingredients

8 oz tenderloin or filet mignon steak, at room temp
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 slices of good bread
lots of olive oil
1 tbsp salted butter
10 oz cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp honey
2 tsp white wine vinegar
8 oz burrata
fresh basil leaves

Procedure

Generously season steak with salt and pepper.

Heat a cast iron skillet on medium high. Generously drizzle olive oil. Fry bread in the olive oil on both sides until golden, then remove and set aside.

Add butter to the skillet and then add the steak. For medium rare, cook steak undisturbed for ~3 minutes on each side. Transfer steak to a grooved cutting board to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, followed by the cherry tomatoes, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and garlic. Let tomatoes char on one side before turning. Cook tomatoes until they start to burst, about 4–5 minutes total. Shut off heat.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl. Spoon in the charred tomatoes and mix gently to combine.

Slice the steak thinly.

Assemble the toasts. First, divide the burrata among them, then the steak. Then spoon some of the tomato mixture over each. Garnish with the basil leaves.

For more toast inspiration, check out all the posts with the “toast post” tag here.