First, cherry tomatoes work best for this, the bigger the better. But remember the word "bite"--they must not be so big that you can't eat them in one bite, but not so small that you need a microscope and tweezers to assemble. The key to making these is in the preparation.
First, the tomatoes. Wash and clean your cherry tomatoes, picking out the best. Then take a very sharp knife and slice a bit of the top off. You should just see the cells of the tomato. Now you need to get the "stuff" out. I used a large cake decorating star tip. Push it in, twist and then turn at an angle to break out the center "stem" of the tomato, actually the cell wall. Turn over and the juice and seeds will drain out. Clean up a bit with a small tea spoon if you need to, then turn upside down on a few thicknesses of paper towels and let drain for a good hour or two in the refrigerator. You'll need about 48 of these if you want to serve in an 11x13 pan, serves 12 people as an appetizer.
Now prepare your other ingredients. You need a sauce. A half cup of mayonnaise and a half cup of sour cream play well together. Add a half teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. Here's where you can let go and be creative if you want, try some other seasonings, but make sure they're ground. Season to taste, that's the key. Mix well and put in a squeeze bottle. Let sit for an hour or so for the flavors to melt.
Fry one pound of good quality bacon until very crisp, then drain thoroughly, cool, and rough chop. You'll want a few of the larger pieces reserved for the top of your BLT bites.
The last ingreident is the "L," the lettuce. Romaine works well but you can use any lettuce you want. Next time I may just try arugula, for the bitterness and bit of it. Finely chop your lettuce (about 3-4 romaine leaves). Then in a food processor, finely chop one small rib of celery and two scallions (white and very light green parts only), and add to the lettuce. Mix well and set aside.
put a few bits of bacon, then a small portion of the lettuce mixture. Use your little finger or the handle of a wooden spoon to tamp down the mixture if needed. It should almost come to the top of the bit, and it's great if a few pieces of the green lettuce mixture are sticking out. Now add another small dollop of your sauce, then one or two large bits of bacon for presentation. Line up in your 11x13 pan and refrigerate for at least an hour. That's all there is to it. Believe me, whoever you serve these to will be much impressed. Smacznego!
I tried these for New Year's Day 2017 but used grape tomatoes (could not find decent cherry tomatoes that did not cost and arm and a leg). Because of their oblong shape, i let each one lie, then rolled it 1/4 turn and cut a slice of the side off--that way they's stand up, so to speak. Worked OK but they are just too small to work with easily. Next time i'd go back to cherry tomatoes, a bit easier to work with.
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