Fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese: Southern stars align on a bun

Foods, like people, can have surprising pasts.

Sketch out family trees for fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese, for instance, and you’ll see roots that snake outside the South. As writer Robert Moss explained in two fascinating historical explorations for Serious Eats, the former has ancestors from all over the country but perhaps most from the Midwest, while the latter’s ties are Northeastern, through and through.

These were no carpetbaggers. To the contrary, Southern cooks and chefs welcomed them so warmly that these days their identities seem inextricable from the region.

Fried green tomatoes, made famous by Fannie Flagg’s best-selling book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe” and its movie version, grew out of gardeners’ panic. When the first frost looms and unripe tomatoes hang on the vine, you need to run out and harvest them before the freeze turns their flesh into mush. In the kitchen, their firm texture makes them ideal for battering and frying, during which the heat softens the inside and turns the cornmeal-coated outside crunchy.

Pimento cheese, meanwhile, has ties to the industrial development of cream cheese and the import of Spanish peppers. After the combination made its way south, the cheese eventually became cheddar, and mayonnaise joined the party. Over the decades, the dip gained such popularity it became known as “the paté of the South.”

Cooks do all sorts of interpretations of both staples — alone and together. I’ve seen appetizers of small FGTs topped with dollops of PC; triple-decker stacks; and even a sandwich in which the tomatoes play the bread, with the cheese in between and the whole shebang battered and fried.

Near my home, at the restaurant Pennyroyal Station, my go-to order is the PLT: pimento cheese, lettuce and (fried green) tomatoes on a soft brioche bun. They didn’t invent the sandwich, but it’s so straightforward in construction and divine in consumption that I started making a version at home from time to time, and I vote for its addition to menus far and wide. Can we canonize it?

My slight departure from the Pennyroyal formula is the addition of bread-and-butter pickle slices for extra crunch and tart sweetness.

I realize that anytime you’re cooking specifically for a sandwich, the recipe is going to take longer than your typical slice/stack/spread situation. And in summer, your appetite for kitchen work is probably waning. But this is no ordinary sandwich, as lovers of both fried green tomatoes and pimento cheese will immediately recognize. This is a marriage of stars, a grafting of family trees, at a wedding just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, which makes it worth a little effort.

Still, if you want to postpone the ceremony until the weather starts cooling off (perhaps when a frost is imminent?), I wouldn’t blame you. Your guests will wait, and they’ll be glad they did.

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Fried Green Tomato and Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

For the pimento cheese:

3 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup)

1½ tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons jarred or canned pimentos, drained and chopped

1 teaspoon finely grated shallot (from 1 small shallot)

1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce

For the fried green tomatoes:

1 large green tomato (8 ounces), stemmed and cut into ¼- to ⅓-inch slices*

½ teaspoon fine salt, divided

½ cup fine cornmeal

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

¼ cup well-shaken buttermilk

¼ cup neutral oil, such as sunflower or canola

For assembly:

4 hamburger buns, lightly toasted

4 large butter lettuce leaves

Bread-and-butter pickle slices, for serving

Make the pimento cheese: In a small bowl, stir together the cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, shallot and hot sauce until well combined. You should have a generous ½ cup (less than you might think, but the grated cheese compacts when you stir it with the other ingredients).

Make the fried green tomatoes: Set a large plate near your workspace. Sprinkle the tomatoes lightly on both sides with ¼ teaspoon of the salt.

In a wide, shallow bowl or pie plate, whisk together the cornmeal, pepper, smoked paprika and ⅛ teaspoon of the salt.

In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk with the remaining ⅛ teaspoon of salt.

Dip a tomato slice in the buttermilk mixture and turn to coat. Transfer it to the cornmeal mixture and turn several times to coat, patting the coating with your fingers to help it stick, if needed. Transfer the prepared slice to the large plate, and repeat with the remaining tomato slices.

Place a wire rack over a large sheet pan and set it next to the stovetop.

In a large (12-inch) skillet over medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Gently lay the tomato slices in the oil and fry until deep golden brown on the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the slices, and fry on the other side until deep golden brown on the bottom, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer them to the wire rack to drain.

To assemble: Place one lettuce leaf on the bun bottoms. Top each with a few pickle slices. Lay a fried green tomato slice on each set of pickles, and top each with 2 tablespoons of the pimento cheese and the bun tops. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Servings: 4 (makes 4 sandwiches)

Substitutions: For extra-sharp cheddar, use sharp cheddar or smoked cheddar, or a blend. For hand-grated cheese, use pre-grated cheese. For mayonnaise, use vegan mayonnaise. For shallot, use onion. For fine cornmeal, use coarse cornmeal, all-purpose flour or plain breadcrumbs. For buttermilk, use plain yogurt or kefir. (If using Greek yogurt, whisk in a little water to thin.) For butter lettuce, use Bibb, or red or green leaf lettuce. Gluten-free? Use gluten-free buns.

Variations: To use an air fryer, spray the cornmeal-coated green tomatoes generously with nonstick cooking spray and air-fry at 400°F for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown, flipping them once halfway through. To serve these as appetizers, omit the buns, lettuce and pickles, and scoop the pimento cheese onto the warm fried tomatoes (cut into smaller pieces, if you’d like). To serve as lettuce wraps, omit the buns.

* Notes: Look for firm, unripe green tomatoes, not varieties such as Green Zebra that are green even when ripe. You should get four equal slices from an 8-ounce tomato, with some trim left over.

Make ahead: The pimento cheese can be prepared and refrigerated for up to 4 days before making the sandwiches. Storage: Refrigerate the fried tomatoes and the pimento cheese separately for up to 4 days.

Nutritional information per serving (1 sandwich): 348 calories, 20 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 32 g carbohydrates, 647 mg sodium, 25 mg cholesterol, 12 g protein, 2 g fiber, 7 g sugar.

— Joe Yonan