Gourmet Sandwhich - Grilled Vegetables with Pesto on Artisan Bread

Last month we visited a local bistro. They had a Tuscan style menu and one of the things we ordered was a lovely grilled panini sandwhich. It had grilled vegetables, cheese, pesto and we really enjoyed it. I was quite eager to reverse engineer it and make my very own version of it. So, after a couple of days, I made a fresh batch of pesto, made some strawberry balsamic vinegar and I was on my way. The resultant sandwhich was lipsmacking.

So, this year, when we decided to celebrate my daughter's birthday in the park, and I was trying to come up with a suitable menu, I realized these sandwhiches would be perfect as the main course. Everyone loved the sandwhiches, and I received a lot of compliments. I made around eighty sandwhiches and once you read the recipe, you will realize how easy these are to scale up. So, if you are looking that dish that will wow your guests and won't have you slaving over the stove for hours, this is it!

The following ingredients list is for one ciabatta roll and will provide about 6-8 servings on how large you cut your sandwhiches.

Ingredients
1 loaf of bread (use ciabatta, or garlic bread or rosemary bread)
1/4 cup basil pesto (click on the link to see recipe from another post)
1 tbsp strawberry balsamic vinegar
pepper jack cheese, slices - at least enough to create one layer over the bread
1 large red onion, sliced
1-2 zuccinis/italian squash,  thinly sliced lengthwise
1-2 firm tomatoes, sliced
2-3 tbsp  olive oil (use about 1.5 tbsp to grill the onions and 1.5 tbsp to grill the zuccini)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

The following ingredients list is to make 80 sandwhiches, assuming one sandwhich will be about 3 inches length wise and 2-3 inches width wise. I estimated about 2 sandwhiches per person. However, if you are planning to multiple items like pastas/salads which may be filling along with the sandwhiches, you can estimate about 1.5 sandwhich per adult.

Ingredients
10-12 bread loaves (estimate the number of loaves based on how long and wide the loaf is)
4-5 cups of pesto sauce
plenty of pepper jack cheese, I bought a cheese block and sliced about 1/2 (about 4 cups worth)
1/4 cup strawberry balsamic vinegar
10 large onions, sliced
20 zuccinis, sliced length wise
12 large tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil (use 1/8 cup to grill the onions and 1/8 cup to grill the zuccinis)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Method
Add half of the olive oil over the red onion slices and then grill these on a hot grill, till the onion is cooked, slightly browned. At this stage it gets a sweet tinge. Add remaining olive oil to the zuccini and then grill the zuccini. Let the water from the zuccini evaporate. Slice the bread horizontally into two large pieces. If you want, you can toast the bread in the oven for a few minutes. 

Now, we are ready to assemble the sandwhich. Spread pesto on one the top slice of the bread. Add a layer of cheese on the other bread slice and keep it in a warm oven for a minute till it melts slightly. Drizzle the strawberry balsamic vinegar over the cheese. Next add a layer of tomato slices. Season this layer with a little salt and pepper. Next add a layer of grilled onions, then season that with a little salt and peper. The next layer is the grilled zuccini which also needs to be lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Then, add back the top layer of the bread with the pesto. Cut the sandwhich into 6-8 pieces based on how large you want the sandwhich to be. Based on the length and width of the bread, I was able to make 8 sandwhiches.

Use the same method when you want to scale up this recipe. Cook the onions and zuccini, slice the cheese and tomatoes. You can make pesto a few days earlier, it stays fresh in the fridge for a couple of weeks and also freezes really well.  Once you have prepared all the ingredients, you can then create an assembly line and assemble all the sandwhiches. Then cut them into appropriate number of pieces.

Tips 
If you do not have a grill, you can use a hot pan to cook the onions and zuccini. Zuccinis release water as they start cooking, so it will take a bit longer to cook/grill them than the onions. If you are making the sandwhiches a few hours in advance, then make sure to de-seed the tomatoes, so that the sandwhiches do not get soggy from the tomato juice. Also, add a layer of pesto on both side of the sandwhich, so that it stays moist. Also, do not toast the bread if you want it to stay moist.

Garden Pasta with Almond Basil Pesto Sauce and a Dinner Menu

Fresh pesto sauce is an absolute delight to the tastebuds. You get great readymade pesto in the grocery store and it is very handy to use, so if you don't have the ingredients or time to make, you can definitely use a store bought version. However, once you have tasted fresh pesto, you will not want to use the refrigerated version. The sweet basil, pungent garlic and creamy almonds make this a delectable dish. It is a very elegant dish and doesn't take a lot of time to make. It is just the perfect dinner party dish. You can scale it to make large quantities easily and it will impress your guests for sure.

Here is a great menu for your next dinner party. I am sure this will wow your guests.

Garlic Bread
Tomato Basil Bisque soup
Garden Pasta with Almond Basil Pesto Sauce

Ingredients
For the pesto
1 cup basil
5-6 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more to give the pesto a thick sauce consistency)
1 cup of almonds, peeled or blanched
salt to taste
pepper to taste (optional)

For the pasta
1 box (about 1 pound) of sphagetti - cook it per the directions on the box.
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (pesto has a lot of oil in it already, so don't use a lot for the veggies)
3-4 cloves of garlic - finely diced
1 large yellow onion, sliced
1 cup bell pepper (red, yellow, orange), sliced
1 cup broccoli florets - blanched 
1 zucchini - sliced into semi circles
salt to taste

Method
To make the pesto

Add the basil, garlic, almonds to a food processor or blender. Add the salt and pepper and then start processing. As you process, add the olive oil through the feed tube in the processor/blender. Add just enough oil so that the resultant mixture has a  thick sauce like consistency. If it's too little, it will not spread well when added to the pasta and if its too much then the taste will get diluted and the pesto will not stick to the pasta.

To make the pasta
Cook the pasta per instructions. You can keep it "al dente" where is slightly undercooked, or well done. If its "al dente" it has a slight bite to it. Keep this aside. Reserve the water the pasta was cooked in.

Heat the oil in a broad pan, to this add the garlic. Once you start getting the aroma of garlic being cooked, add the onion slices. Cook these till the onion begins to get transparent. Then add the bell pepper, cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the zuccini slices. Next add the cooked broccoli and cook all the vegetables for another minute. Don't overcook the vegetables, they should still have a little bite and not be mushy. Season the vegetables with salt at this time. Remember there is some salt in the pesto, so add just a little salt. Then add the sphagetti and toss it well with the vegetables. If the pasta and vegetable mixture seems very dry at this point, add a little of the water reserved from cooking the pasta and mix. Turn off the heat. Then pour the desired amount of the pesto sauce over the warm sphagetti and toss well to coat the vegetables and the sphagetti with pesto. Garnish with a basil leaf and grated parmesan (parmigiano reggiano) cheese.

Tips
There are many varieties of basil available, so make sure you are picking up the one used in Italian cooking and it's not the sweet basil used in Thai food because the tastes are starkly different. Most pesto recipes call for a lot of olive oil. I try to use as little oil as possible in my preparations, so you can increase the oil in the pesto based on your preference and how much oil you need to get to the sauce consistency.
To blanch the broccoli, boil water and add the broccoli to it. Let it cook for a couple of minutes till you see it turn a bright green color. Keep a bowl of iced water ready and add the cooked broccoli to the iced water so that it stops cooking. At this point, the broccoli will be semi-cooked and a lovely bright green.  To peel almonds, soak them in water overnight. Next morning, you will be able to easily peel off the skin. If you don't have the time to pre-soak it, add them to the boiling water and remove after a minute. This is similar to blanching the broccoli. Then peel the loosened skin. You also can buy blanched and sliced almonds from the store and use it directly.