Certain foods have a bit of magic about them. When I eat them, it’s impossible to think of anything that ever tasted better.

For me, these are tacos from an authentic taco truck; a pan bagnat in the south of France; root beer shave ice in Hilo, Hawaii; and a Santa Rosa plum plucked from the tree perfectly ripe. And, of course, a BLT, almost anywhere at all.

A BLT is reliable, a security blanket on a plate. Even the worst one isn’t bad. When you harvest your first tomatoes in midsummer, or when the light becomes a golden glow in early fall, or even at a truck stop on the Interstate late at night, a BLT is enough. In times of trouble, it’s good to remember that when all else fails, try a BLT.

The BLT is also my biggest claim to fame, and not because of the World’s Biggest BLTs that I have constructed here in Sonoma County. Instead, it’s what got me on “Jeopardy!” — in a way, with this question: “Michele A. Jordan wrote a cookbook devoted to this sandwich whose name tells you its 3 main ingredients.” Emails from Gaye LeBaron and several others alerted me, and a friend even snagged a screen shot.

Today’s recipes are adapted from my “The BLT Cookbook” (William Morrow, 2003). The book has 42 primary recipes, along with a chapter of basic recipes. Sixteen are for BLTs in various forms, including several for vegetarians. The rest are for appetizers, soups, salads and more inspired by the BLT and its delicious alchemy.

Not long after “The BLT Cookbook” was published, a young friend celebrated his 10th birthday in mid-August, when tomatoes were perfect. I hosted a BLT party for him, with BLT bruschetta and other BLT-inspired dishes from the book, including this one.

30 1 ½-inch squares of sourdough bread

Black pepper in a mill

10 12-inch-long wooden skewers, soaked in water for an hour

⅓ cup homemade mayonnaise, aioli or Best Foods mayonnaise

Put the bread in a medium bowl, drizzle the olive oil over it and toss gently until the bread absorbs all the oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper and toss again. Set aside.

Fry the bacon until it is not quite crisp; transfer it to absorbent paper to drain.

To make the kebabs, put a skewer through a slice of bacon, poking it through the leanest part of one end. Push it down about 1 ½ inches from the tip of the skewer. Add a bread cube, then pierce the bacon again, so it is folded over the bread. Add a cherry tomato and fold the bacon over that. Continue until each skewer has 3 cubes of bread and 3 cherry tomatoes, each separated by a fold of bacon.

Grill over a charcoal fire or on a stovetop grill, turning to grill the bread on both sides.

Working quickly, toss the salad greens with a little salt and spread them over a large serving platter. Put the mayonnaise or aioli into a small bowl, squeeze in about a tablespoon of lemon juice and stir.

Set the grill kebabs on the greens and drizzle the mayonnaise or aioli over everything. Enjoy right away.

This elegant, delicious soup is ideal in late summer and early fall, when nights can be cool and we still have great tomatoes. I have a large patch of sorrel in my garden, so that’s what I use most often. Sometimes, especially when I can get good watercress at a farmers market, I use watercress instead.

Sorrel Soup with Cherry Tomato Salsa & Bacon

1 pint currant or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

1 serrano, stemmed, seeded and minced

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

Black pepper in a mill

1 yellow onion, trimmed and diced

1 large potato, peeled and thinly sliced

5 cups homemade chicken broth or stock, or water

¼ pound sorrel leaves, largest stems discarded, chopped

½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Black pepper in a mill

First, make the salsa. Put the tomatoes into a medium bowl and add the onion, garlic, serrano, lime juice and olive oil. Stir, add the watercress and cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Taste, correct for salt and acid, cover and set aside.

Fry the bacon in a large saucepan or medium soup pot until it is crisp. Transfer the bacon to absorbent paper to drain and pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pot.

Return the pot to medium heat, add the olive oil and onion and saute until the onion is soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, saute 2 minutes more, add the potato, stir, season lightly with salt and pour in the wine. Simmer until the wine is reduced by about half.

Add the broth, stock or water. Increase the heat to high, and when the liquid boils, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the sorrel and parsley, simmer for 5 minutes more and remove from the heat.

Use an immersion blender or conventional blender to puree the soup. Season with several generous turns of black pepper and correct for salt.

Pass the soup through a strainer into a heatproof pitcher.

To serve, pour the soup into soup plates and scatter salsa over each portion. Quickly crumble the bacon and scatter it on top. Enjoy right away.

This voluptuous pasta doesn’t take much longer to prepare than the time required to boil water, making it an easy weeknight meal. I often made it for my grandson Lucas when he lived with me during his middle-school years.

1 ¼ cups tomato concasse (see Note)

4 slices bacon, cut into ½-inch crosswise strips

2 garlic cloves, crushed and minced

1 tablespoon crème fraîche

Black pepper in a mill

Make the tomato concasse and set it aside.

Fill a medium saucepan two-thirds full with water, add a tablespoon of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. When the water boils, add the pasta, stir until the water returns to a boil and cook according to package directions until just done.

Meanwhile, put the bacon in a medium saute pan set over medium-high heat and cook until it is crisp; transfer to absorbent paper to drain. Pour off all but about a tablespoon of bacon fat.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the garlic, saute 1 minute, add the tomato concasse and simmer gently for 5 minutes. While it cooks, stack the leaves, roll them into a lengthwise tube and cut crosswise into ¼-inch-wide strips. Stir into the tomato concasse along with the bacon, and remove from the heat.

When the pasta is al dente, drain but do not rinse it. Tip it into the saucepan and turn it gently to coat it in sauce. Divide it between two pasta bowls or plates. Season with several turns of black pepper and top with a dollop of crème fraîche. Enjoy right away.

Note: To make tomato concasse, peel about 1 ½ pounds of ripe beefsteak variety tomatoes. Remove the stem cores, cut in half through their equators and squeeze out the seeds and gel. Using a very sharp knife, chop the tomato flesh until it is reduced to a pulp. Scoop into a strainer set over a deep bowl, add a teaspoon of salt, stir and let drain for 5 minutes. What remains in the strainer is the concasse. The drained juice is delicious, too, so don’t throw it away.

With all this chatter about the BLT, I couldn’t leave you hanging without a recipe for one! This BLT is really fun for a casual backyard party or picnic. It’s also an example of why you must read a recipe all the way through before starting to cook. Here, there are no detailed instructions for cooking the bacon and you should do so before starting to prepare the sandwich.

1- pound loaf San Francisco-style sourdough bread, cut in half lengthwise

¾ cup mayonnaise, more or less to taste

5 ripe slicing tomatoes, cored and cut into ⅜-inch-thick slices

Black pepper in a mill

10 bacon slices, cut in half crosswise and fried until crisp

Several leaves of butter lettuce or oak leaf lettuce

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Set the bread, cut sides up, on the middle rack for about 9 or 10 minutes, until the bread is heated through and the top is lightly browned. Set the hot bread on a work surface.

Spread the mayonnaise over the cut surfaces of the bread. Arrange the basil leaves on the bottom half of the bread and tile the tomatoes on top of them. Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper. Set the bacon on top of the tomatoes, spread the lettuce over it, season with a little salt and set the other half of the bread on top.

To enjoy right away, cut into crosswise sections. To serve later, wrap in aluminum foil and serve within an hour or 2.

Michele Anna Jordan is the author of 24 books to date, including “The Good Cook’s Book of Tomatoes.” Email her at michele@micheleannajordan.com.

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