Summer Tomato Tostadas with Tonnato-White Bean Puree

A perfect no-cook meal for the height of summer produce season

This recipe started with a gift. I was in Sonoma, working with a farmer-chef couple on an upcoming book project, and they offered to send me home with some produce from the farm. Obviously, I was thrilled. By the time they handed me the box that evening, there was far more produce than I expected, and I ended up making all kinds of delicious things with the vegetables over the course of the next few days.

But the very first thing I made, for lunch the text day, was a tostada designed to highlight the farm’s beautiful heirloom tomatoes. For that first version, I used a hummus-like nut puree that I had left over from a recipe test, cut up some tomatoes to pile on top, then added herbs from my garden and a drizzle of chile crisp. The result was so good that I immediately made myself a second one—and continued experimenting with the form, making different kinds of purees and swapping in different herbs every day until I landed on just the right balance of flavors and textures.

This final version takes flavor inspiration from classic Italian tonnato, a tuna-based sauce that is often served on veal but is also excellent on all kinds of vegetables—especially tomatoes. Since this sauce is too thin to anchor the base of a tostada, I mixed the ingredients with some white beans—because if beans + tuna = delicious, and tuna + tomatoes = delicious, and beans + tomatoes = delicious, then all three together = fantastic (obviously). I also added some anchovy, for extra fishiness, to balance out the way the beans mellowed the tuna. I also added some flavorful herb flowers from my garden, because most herb blossoms have the same flavors as their leaves, and I like to let my plants bolt and finish up their lifecycles—it leads to both a prettier garden and a prettier meal (and happier pollinators).

---

My new book, SNACKING DINNERS, launched in April! Check out my events page for upcoming talks, signings, and pop-ups—including a Brooklyn stop this coming Tuesday!!!

---

Of course, there are lots of other ways you can highlight summer foods by piling them on a tostada; in fact, if you eat your way through Oakland these days, you might start to think that the tostada is every chef’s new favorite canvas. And, as a friend said to me recently, “Once you have tostadas in the house, all you want is a tostada.” After I had perfected this recipe, I still had a pretty tall stack of the pre-crisped tortillas that are the “tostada” itself (though the word applies to both the “toasted” tortilla and the food you make by putting things on top of it). So my tostada experimentation is far from over. Stay tuned!

The box that started it all

Summer Tomato Tostadas with Tonnato-White Bean Puree

Makes 3–4 tostadas

1 can (4.5–5 ounces) tuna
¼ cup white beans, such as cannellini
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil (or the oil from the can, plus 3 teaspoons olive oil)
1 small garlic clove
1–2 anchovy filets
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Lemon zest
3–4 tostadas
Heirloom tomatoes and sungold cherry tomatoes (number will depend on their size)
Cilantro leaves and herb flowers (such as rosemary, cilantro, and parsley blossoms and/or nasturtium petals)
Chili crisp

1. In a mini food processor, puree the tuna, beans, olive oil, garlic, and 1 anchovy until smooth. Season the mixture with the salt, a grind of pepper, and a little bit of finely grated lemon zest and blend again. Taste the puree and adjust the flavoring, adding the second anchovy and more pepper and lemon zest as needed to suit your taste. (The mixture should be on the stronger side, so that it helps season the tomato.)

2. Spread a thick layer of the puree on each tostada. Cut the large tomato(es) into wedge and halve the cherry tomatoes, then nestle the pieces into the puree. Tuck the cilantro and flowers into the spots between the tomato wedges and drizzle everything with chile crisp. Eat immediately, so that the tostada doesn’t lose its crisp texture.

Photos: Georgia Freedman