Fried Green Tomato BLT With Basil Mayo

fluffernutter's Note:

Packed with different flavors, and even better than a traditional BLT. It's a crowd-pleaser, so it's great for casual dinner with friends. Make sure there's no red on the green tomatoes -- the red parts can dissolve when fried. If you're pressed for time, skip the sliced fresh tomatoes. The recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 cups loosely packed basil
• 1 1/4 cups mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 18 slices bacon
• 6 big green tomatoes, sliced into 18 slices
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 egg, beaten
• oil, for shallow frying
• sliced red and yellow tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups sliced arugula
• 12 slices good bread

Directions:

1. For the basil mayonnaise, puree the basil, 1/4 cup of the mayo, lemon juice and mustard in a blend until smnooth. Stir in the rest of the mayo. Refrigerate until needed.
2. Fry the bacon and drain.
3. Put half the flour on a plate or waxed paper. Combine the other half of the flour, all the cornmeal, and salt and pepper to taste. Arrange the flour, egg and cornmeal mixture in a row on a work surface. Dip each green tomato slice in flour, then egg, then cornmeal mixture, coating thickly. Pat the coating on. Fry in hot oil 2 minutes per side. Drain.
4. Make sandwiches by spreading bread with mayonnaise, then stacking green tomato, bacon, sliced tomato alternately. Top with arugula.