Mezzetta just had a sandwich smackdown. The rules of the game required using two of their products in a sandwich in one of three categories: hot, cold or vegetarian. To say my local grocery carries a limited selection of their products would be overstating matters. They had gardiniera, roasted mixed peppers and some pickled jalapenos. Hmmmmmm, what sounded good? Gardiniera is a bit lumpy to put in a sandwich. Isn't that a great visual, someone eating a sandwich with a big, ole piece of cauliflower hanging out of it. So, what would happen if you smooshed the veggies in the gardiniera? Maybe turned them into an aioli? Next decision, what kind of bread, meat and cheese? The roasted peppers and the gardiniera aioli screamed Italian. So, Italian it was.
Saturday night I made a tomato tart that was pretty much a bust. It looked gorgeous but the crust was gummy and I thought the filling needed a little oomph. But, it was a Todd English recipe so I was convinced that it was salvageble. The original recipe called for baking it in an 8" cast iron skillet but I wanted to use a tart pan since my 8" cast iron skillet is rather a wreck. So, the idea was to make another on Sunday and pre-bake the crust. That tart was halfway done - pre-baked and the ingredients ready to go - when I got around to reading the instructions on the Mezzetta site. Big oops. The contest was over on the 6th. That meant I needed to make the sandwiches NOW and get the recipe entered NOW. Well, fine then, we'd have the sandwiches for dinner and the tart for breakfast. Problem solved. Well, except for the fact that Connie whined that he couldn't have slices of happiness for two days in a row. (I'll update the blog on those treats shortly.)
Italian Garden Sandwich
Ingredients:
1 heaping cup gardiniera vegetables, drained
1/2 c Hellman's olive oil mayonnaise
2 ciabatta buns
8 slices genoa salami
6 slices capicola
4 slices provolone cheese
roasted red and yellow peppers
Directions:
Put the vegetables in the bowl of a food processor
Process until they're crushed.
Add the mayonnaise and process until you've got a slightly chunky aioli.
Toast the ciabatta buns. Smear the cut sides with the aioli.
Layer on the meats, cheese and peppers. Start with the salami, then half the provolone,
then the peppers
Then the other half of the provolone, then the capicola.
You're using that order try and keep the peppers from slip-sliding away while you're eating the sandwich. The melty cheese will envelope them...
Either wrap the sandwiches in foil and bake at 350 for about 15 min or grill them in a skillet on dry heat until the cheese melts.
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.
