One of my favorite breakfast dishes is fried tomatoes. Not green tomatoes, for the most part, but red ones. The recipe is simple. Cut tomatoes into thick slices, dust with flour and cornmeal, and fry. Well, there are several very good reasons why I don’t make this dish anymore.

For one thing, most of my current frying pans are cast-iron. Cast-iron doesn’t take kindly to acidy foods like tomatoes (that’s why canned tomatoes often have a short shelf life — tomatoes are notoriously rough on cans).

Another important reason is the calories. In order to fry properly, a certain minimum amount of hot oil is necessary. Cooking oil is fat.

The third, and perhaps the most serious reason is that most cooking oils suffer nutritional damage when heated to frying temperatures. Olive oil, one of the healthiest oils when unheated, is especially delicate, and should be used as a garnish rather than for cooking. Some specialty oils have a high smoke point, and are safer to use for frying. But that doesn't address the matter of calories.

Anyway, I missed the taste of my tomato breakfast dish, so I came up with this recipe. It has an almost-fried flavor, a tasty crunchiness, and a negligible amount of fat. Try it as a side dish with your morning eggs.

Tasty Toasty Tomatoes

2 ripe tomatoes, rinsed and dried
Pan spray, butter flavor
Corn flake crumbs
Salt and pepper
Cayenne or hot sauce (optional)

Cut tomatoes into 1/2" slices.
Put slices in one layer on a sprayed baking sheet.
Spray tops of tomatoes with pan spray.
Put under broiler until tomatoes are getting browned and bubbly, but not burned. Remove from broiler.
While tomatoes are still hot and bubbly, sprinkle with corn flake crumbs.
Put the crumb-encrusted tomatoes back under the broiler for a minute, to brown the crumbs (optional step).
Season with salt and pepper.
Serve immediately, garnished with cayenne or hot sauce (optional).

Note:
Toaster-oven broiler works fine for this recipe.