It's hot. So hot, that we can't bare to turn on the oven and we're more in the mood for shopping than cooking. We went to the Hollywood Farmers Market on Sunday to buy Japanese Momotaro tomatoes from Yasutomi farms and salad greens from Living Lettuce Farms for a light, but satisfying lunch of tartines and salad.

Tartines are French open-faced sandwiches or over-sized bruschetta. They can be hot or cold, sweet or savory. Traditionally, they were were homey affairs with minimalist toppings. They became popularized as more elaborate restaurant preparations by the famed Poilâne bakery in Paris. There are no codified recipes for tartines, the idea is to be inspired by in stock pantry items, the farmers' market or even leftovers. Turn the page for tips on basic tartine making techniques.

Cold tartines typically start with a spread of soft cheese or a dip to anchor the other ingredients placed on top of the bread. Goat cheese, Boursin, ricotta, tapenade, pesto, crème fraîche, mayonnaise or butter are commonly used. The bread of choice is typically sliced boule since they provide large enough bases for substantial toppings, but you can use any crusty round loaf bread to make tartines. The bread should be sliced anywhere from 1/4″- 1/2″ thick, depending on the substance, weight and amount of toppings. As long as you use good quality ingredients, your tartines will taste good.

Egg Salad Tartine

From: Farid Zadi

Makes: enough for 2-3 tartines depending on the size of the bread.

Notes: For extra-creamy egg salad, the eggs should be slightly undercooked with a transparent ring around the yolk, in other words not completely hard boiled. This is a very narrow window of cooking time, you'll probably have to sacrifice an egg to test for doneness. Elise of Simply Recipes provides a detailed explanation of boiled egg cookery. You can use rice wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice. Adding an acidic component to the dish helps cut the richness of the eggs and mayonnaise and brightens up the flavors.

2-3 slices of bread, lightly toasted

2-3 radicchio leaves

6 hard boiled eggs

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

6 chives, finely chopped

6 tablespoons mayonnaise (more or less to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Roughly chop five of the eggs, quarter the remaining egg to use as a garnish and place into a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle the lemon juice over the eggs, add mayonnaise and gently combine the ingredients until the eggs are completely coated with mayonnaise. Gently remove the egg quarters and place them in small bowl.

2. Spread a thin layer of egg salad on the bread, place a radicchio leaf on top, spoon more egg salad on top, garnish with quartered egg, and sprinkle with chives.

Momotaro Tomato Tartine

3-4 slices of bread, lightly toasted

1-2 tablespoons Boursin cheese per slice of bread

1 cup arugula

1 large Momotaro tomato, sliced (1/4 inch thick)

1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

Coarse salt and pepper to taste

1. Spread a layer of Boursin on the bread, add a layer of arugula, a layer of tomato slices, then a layer of cucumbers, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Vinaigrette for Salad

1 part aged balsamic

3 parts extra-virgin olive oil

1. whisk together balsamic and olive oil until emulsified.

Wine Pairing

From: David Haskell of Magnum

Tomato tartine:

Rosso Wine Shop: Girolamo Dorigo, 2007.

Price: $20.99

Grape: Ribolla Gialla

Region: Friuli, Italy

Love the lightness of this wine. Ribolla sometimes is made with the skin on. But not in this case, so its light and fresh. The cucumbers will bring out so much more flavor.

Egg salad tartine:

Rosso Wine Shop:Celadon

Price: $19.99

Grape: Grenache Blanc:

Region: Monteray, California

This is a very fruit forward and weighty Grenache Blanc. This wine pairs great with the radicchio and chives. It will give the wine more greenery. Right now the wine has little white pepper the Chives will bring out so much more of the pepper.

Follow David Haskell on Twitter.

Farid Zadi is the Dean of Culinary Arts at Ecole de Cuisine. You can follow him on twitter or join him on Facebook.

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