I’ll Stop the World and Melt with You

One of my favorite fast, last-minute-when-you-are-starving meals is a tomato melt. I warm a little olive oil and add garlic (pressed or just cut into big chunks) and some dried basil and oregano. I brush the infused oil on a sliced roll or French bread, top it with tomato slices and cheese, and broil it until the cheese melts. Yum! I particularly like Havarti cheese for this sandwich; sometimes I’ll use dill Havarti and forgo the dried herbs. I was flipping through Gourmet Meals in Minutes (a fabulous cookbook) and found a recipe for an eggplant melt. This seemed like an intriguing variation on my beloved tomato melt. I changed up the recipe, paring down the ingredients significantly. A hit! And it makes me wonder what other tasty possibilities there are for simple melty sandwiches.

Eggplant Melt (4 to 6 servings)

• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 eggplant cut into ½-inch slices
• loaf of wheat ciabatta, split lengthwise and cut into 4-6 portions
• Havarti cheese, sliced

1. Heat the broiler.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper. Brush the eggplant slices on both sides with the oil and vinegar mixture. Broil the eggplant until golden brown, 5-6 minutes per side.
3. Brush the ciabatta with the oil and vinegar mixture and broil until lightly toasted, about 1 minute.
4. Layer the eggplant slices on the bottom half of the bread and cover with the cheese slices. Broil until the cheese melts. Place the other half of the bread on top.

Why Have Cheese When You Can Have Melted Cheese?

I love my little George Forman grill. I like making burgers and grilled chops on it. I also like to grill vegetables. But I use it mostly to make panini. Since I’ve been home a lot lately during the day, I’ve been having a panino every day for lunch. (In Italian, panini is plural and the singular is panino.) The combinations are endless – ham with gouda and baby spinach (photo), roast beef with Swiss cheese and arugula, salami with provolone, and tomato with dill havarti, just to name a few – and they are all tasty. Sure, they’d all be great as plain sandwiches. But when you smoosh them in the grill and the roll gets toasty and the cheese melts… Is it lunch time yet?