Every spring, Mette Nielsen, who photographs the food for this column, visits her hometown of Copenhagen. Along with photos of the glorious markets, she brings back lots of ideas for open-faced sandwiches or smørrebrød. These are the bread-and-butter staple in every home — and on every menu — any time of the day. The base consists of dense, firm rye bread that serves as an edible canvas for the arrangement of toppings held in place by a thick schmear of artisan butter or soft cheese.

Smørrebrød was the farmers' lunch crafted of leftovers from dinner the night before. The open-faced sandwich is so ingrained in Scandinavian culture that in Denmark, there is a word for the tooth marks created when biting into that slice of rye — tandsmør or "tooth butter."

It seems that many northern European countries have their own spin on this Scandinavian dish — Norwegians say smøbrød; in Swedish, it's smørgas or maka. The French call these tartines; the Brits say toasts.

Perfect for brunch after shopping the farmers market, these make quick use of the season's bounty of asparagus, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas and lettuces. Add smoked trout, cooked eggs, chicken or pork (from last night's barbecue, or whatever you please). Try these variations; each serves four:

Dilly trout with cucumber: Spread 4 slices of rye bread with about 2 teaspoons each of sweet butter. Stir together 1 cup flaked smoked trout, ½ cup whole milk Greek-style yogurt or sour cream, ½ teaspoon horseradish or more to taste, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, to taste. Pile the trout onto the bread and garnish with slices of cucumber. Garnish with dill fronds.

Truly ripe tomato: Toast 4 slices of dense whole-grain bread until very crisp. Spread each with 2 teaspoons of good quality mayonnaise. Top with thickly sliced tomatoes (use a mix of red and yellow). Sprinkle with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, and garnish with chopped fresh basil.

Breakfast worthy: Spread 4 thick slices of toasted brioche with sweet butter. Top each with a slice of cooked pancetta or bacon, a few leaves of arugula and then a fried or poached egg. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

These open-face sandwiches come from a culture of hospitality and they make for gracious stress-free summer entertaining. The Danes are masters of form and color and every sandwich is made with attention to the smallest detail. Use your imagination and make them pretty.

Beth Dooley is the author of "In Winter's Kitchen." Find her at bethdooleyskitchen.com.