This is less of a recipe and more of a delicious, delicious memory. Last month my husband and I stole away to New York for a couple of days. While we both had to work, we managed to have our evenings and nights to ourselves. (If you have kids, you will completely understand how monumental this is.) It is certainly a pleasure to talk to the person that you love with no interrupting, no spilling, no arguing, no dog drool flying at you. Ahhhhh……..

On one of those hot, late summer nights, we sat outside our hotel where there is an open air café and ordered a huge pitcher of cava punch (yum) and an appetizer of grilled bread with Serrano ham. It was incredible.

I think it is the grilled bread, which my best guess was grilled, then rubbed with garlic and tomato and then finally topped with a thick pile of ham. And that is the what I am sharing with you today. I thought it would be appropriate with the insane heat that everyone is still experiencing. You don’t have to turn your oven on- just the outside BBQ, and only for a couple minutes!!

I enjoy these with a big salad like this, or with a big beautiful bowl of this soup. Or, of course, you could just serve these as an appetizer before dinner.

To make these, you just do this:

Preheat the grill to medium heat. Slice the large pieces of bread in half and drizzle the olive oil over the slices of bread.

Grill the bread to golden on both sides, this should take about 2-3 minutes total.

Remove the bread from the grill and immediately rub the garlic clove over the surface of the bread. The crustiness of the bread will melt the garlic right into the toast.

Next do the same with a tomato. Discard the remaining garlic and tomato. Very lightly sprinkle one side of the toast with kosher salt. (just a tiny bit!)

Pile the ham on the toast and sprinkle with fresh herbs and a drizzle of olive oil and serve. Enjoy!