Muffaletta Sandwich

On Saturdays, our first stop is the farmer's market to pick up our CSA share.  Sometimes I make out our menu before I go and sometimes I take a stack of cookbooks with me and figure out the menu on the way to the office.  This week, there were several ideas leftover from last week and some new ones floating around in my head.  So, on the way to the farmer's market, I asked Connie to rate them.  Ten ideas for what will probably be five dinners and five lunches.  Since lunches are typically leftovers, we had to choose our top five. 

We're off to Symphony on the Prairie Saturday evening and I'm in charge of the starch, the salad and a dessert.  The starch is easy:  couscous salad (I'll get that on the blog soon.)  We've got some blueberries to use up and a box of spinach so we'll do the spinach/blueberry/almond salad with shagbark hickory vinaigrette.  Then, a newbie for dessert - Nesrine's roasted peaches with mascarpone cheese and a balsamic drizzle.  Can't wait to try those. 

In our CSA basket, we got tomatoes, beans, corn on the cob, okra and an eggplant.  That means that with the catfish and slaw, we'll have corn on the cob instead of mustard vinaigrette potato salad.  I also want to do a pork tenderloin with peaches so I needed some for tonight and some for that.  Our fourth dinner will be eggplant parmesan.  YUM!  One of my favorite dishes ever.  Last, but not least, chicken stuffed with spinach, cheese and other goodies.  All of that meant I also had to pick up a cabbage, zucchini and cucumber.  Then, I found these darling little eggplants.  Can't remember what they're called but I can't wait to figure out how to fix them!!  While we were at the market we saw the stand with all the pestos.  Yes, they had the incredible mushroom pesto with truffle oil.  I managed to recreate that last year and it looked REALLY good.  Since we also needed water softener salt, it was a good excuse to head to Sam's and load up on mushrooms to make pesto. 

On the way to Sam's we stopped at my favorite gourmet foods store - Frasiers.  Joy and Myron have a really fun selection of goodies - both food and cookware.  I've known Joy since my teens (truth be told - I was the first babysitter for her kids...) so it's always a treat to get to see her.  There's something I read in a recipe that I know I can get there.  I just can't remember what it was...  So, time to go browse the shelves.  Still no clue.  But, I did find a jar of lingonberries (memories of Ann Sather's in Chicago!) a jar of Lyle's Golden Syrup and a little container of alder wood chips for smoking more salmon. 

One last stop.  Trader Joe's.  We needed mascarpone for the peaches and feta for the couscous.  Oh, and they were giving out samples of a muffaletta sandwich.  To die for!  All those ingredients went in the cart too!  Connie unloaded the car and I started the sandwiches. 

Muffaletta Sandwiches

Ingredients:
4 slices crusty bread
selection of cured Italian meats (prosciutto, salami, )
4 slices provolone cheese
1/3 c green olive tapenade or muffaletta salad
Olive oil

Instructions:
Drizzle two of the slices of bread with olive oil.  Put them in a skillet or on a grill pan oil side down.  Lay the cheese slices on the slices of bread that are grilling. 

Top the cheese with the olive tapenade.  Putting the tapenade in between the cheese and meats helps keep the bread from getting soggy. 

Then, top the tapenade with the meats. 

Top all of that with the last two pieces of bread and drizzle them with olive oil.  Grill until both sides are golden and the provolone has melted.