Tomato Blue Cheese Napoleons

Fresh tomatoes, creamy blue cheese, a little home-made remoulade sauce - do I have your attention yet? For some reason, I am on a roll with the side dishes (see my recent post on Lemon Ricotta Potatoes), which is unusual for me, but I am going with the flow here.

For this one you need some great fresh tomatoes, a mild blue cheese, the makings for a quick food processor remoulade sauce that serves as a dressing, and a little lettuce. Once you whiz up the sauce in the food processor, all you have to do is slice up the tomatoes and the cheese, layer them up on a bed of lettuce and drizzle the sauce over the whole thing. Drop a few red onions on the top and you have a very handsome dish that will completely outshine whatever the main course is. In our case, the Southern husband was grilling up some chicken while I made the napoleans. We sliced up the chicken, tossed it on the plates next to the napoleans, drizzled the left-over remolaude sauce on the sliced chicken, and oh my my. Summer tomato season, here we come!

Tomato Blue Cheese Napoleans, adapted from Taste of the South

• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup mustard
• 1/3 cup chopped scallions
• 1/4 cup prepared horseradish
• 2 large eggs
• Juice of one lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon Tabasco
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup olive oil

• 1 small head romaine lettuce, cut into strips
• 2 large tomatoes, cut into four slices
• 8 ounces blue cheese, cut into eight slices
• Shaved red onion

1. Combine first 12 ingredients (celery through salt) in food processor and process until smooth. With processor still running, pour oil through feed tube until emulsified.

2. Divide lettuce among four plates. Top with one slice tomato, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place slice of blue cheese on top, top with another tomato slice. Drizzle with remoulade sauce, top with another slice of blue cheese. Drizzle more remoulade over top of both tomato stack and lettuce. Garnish with red onion. (Leftover remoulade sauce will keep in the fridge, and it makes a great salad dressing, a light sauce for chicken or seafood, and/or a delicious marinade.)

Click here for printable recipe