Meatless Mondays: Open-faced Eggplant Parmesan Sandwiches

Rachel here: I am obsessed with eggplant (I know-it's a picture of a tomato, not an eggplant, but more on that in a bit). Until recently, I counted it as a food I didn't particularly care for. Our dear friend N came to visit and help us out right after M was born, though, and she put eggplant in lasagnas that she made us. Ever since then I've had a hankering. While my mom hates the texture, that's precisely the thing that I'm so gaga for these days. Anyway, after making stir-fry the other night I found myself with half an eggplant leftover. What to do? Simple. Buy the prettiest heirloom tomato I could find, a delicious loaf of bread and make open-faced eggplant parmesan sandwiches for dinner.


I know, I know. There should be a picture of eggplant and a sandwich in this blog post somewhere. The photos I took, though, fall into the category of epic failure, so instead I'm keeping you hungry with pictures of tomatoes and bread (personally, they're two of my favorite things). This was a really simple and delicious dinner and I don't want to turn you off with unappetizing pictures.



ingredients
loaf of your favorite bread (I bought a loaf of rustic whole wheat sourdough made by the local Acme bakery...so so good)
tomato (heirlooms just came into season here and I won't by a different kind of tomato until they go out)
basil
parmesan cheese
olive oil
eggplant
salt and pepper

method
Slice the eggplant in 1/2-inch slices. Rub with salt, pepper and olive oil. Grill. Place bread under broiler and toast (don't toast too much as you will be placing bread back under broiler later). On top of toasted bread, stack basil leaves, slices of tomato, and piece of grilled eggplant. Shred parmesan cheese generously over the top before placing sandwiches under the broiler. Broil until cheese is good and melted. Devour!