Who knew your could make a Pressed Eggplant Sandwich with a stack of books? Pesto, mozzarella, grilled eggplant, and roasted bell pepper pressed into Mediterranean deliciousness.
This is a pressed ciabatta bread sandwich with a lot of Mediterranean goodness. Fresh pesto, eggplant, zucchini, mozzarella, roasted red bell pepper, the list goes on.
It’s summertime, so we’re gonna start on the grill (though if you don’t have a grill, the stove top makes an okay substitute). Roasting a pepper is one of my favorite things to cook. Because you are SUPPOSED to burn it.
How great is that? I can go off into Sarah la la land and completely forget that I’m cooking and come back to a black bell pepper and it’s TOTALLY OKAY! So you burn up your pepper, grill your zucchini and eggplant, and you’re on your way.
Then there are the cheeses. Oh the cheese! Get yourself a hunk of fresh buffalo mozzarella and cut it into 1/4 inch thick slabs. Then find a nice chunk of aged Parmesan and slice off a few pieces of that. Now we’re really getting somewhere.
Split a fresh (fresher = less chewy = less likely to break your jaw) loaf of ciabatta in half then spread some Pesto Genovese on the top piece. On the bottom piece layer on mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini, roasted red bell pepper pieces, and parmesan.
Whoa Bessy that’s a lot! But that’s not even the fun part. Now you’re gonna wrap the sandwich up real tight with plastic wrap and set a bunch of heavy books or a cast iron skillet on it. Let the sandwich press for about 2 hours, unwrap, slice, and enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1/2 eggplant
- 1 zucchini
- 1 Tbsp olive oil 15 mL
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 large loaf ciabatta bread
- 4 Tbsp pesto
- 4 oz buffalo mozzarella cheese sliced into 1/4 inch slabs
- 2 oz parmesan about 1/4 cup, sliced
Instructions
- Prep Veggies: Slice eggplant and zucchini lengthwise into 1/4 inch slabs. Lightly drizzle with olive oil and grill about 5 minutes, until soft and slightly charred.
- Roast Pepper: Place red bell pepper directly onto grill. Cook 10 to 20 minutes, rotating often, until outside is blackened. Place pepper in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside 20 minutes. Remove skin and seeds from pepper and slice into strips.
- Assemble: Slice ciabatta in half lengthwise and spread pesto onto top half. On bottom half, layer on mozzarella, eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper slices, then parmesan. You do not have to use all of each ingredient and you may have some leftovers.
- Press: Wrap sandwich tightly with plastic wrap. In an area free from breakables, set a few heavy books on top of the sandwich, and allow the sandwich to press about 2 hours. Unwrap sandwich, slice into 4 pieces, and enjoy!
Mama says
Did the succulents survive?
Sarah says
They did! Well they appear to have. You never know with succulents. But with my green thumb they’ll be dead in a week.