Grilled Vegetable, Herb, and Goat Cheese Sandwiches

I look for any excuse to pay good ol' Dorie a visit in Around My French Table, so when I saw that the recipe for Grilled Vegetable, Herb, and Goat Cheese Sandwiches (pg 56) in Giada at Home required sun-dried tomatoes, Dorie's recipe for Slow-Roasted Tomatoes (pg 342) seemed like the perfect replacement.

Like many of Dorie's recipes, the tomatoes are simple as can be. Halve cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, some rosemary or thyme sprigs (I did both), and a few cloves of smashed, unpeeled garlic. Stick them in the oven on low heat for a few hours. They come out richly tangy and sweet/tart. To store the leftovers, she says they'll keep for a few weeks if you top them with oil and refrigerate. Once the tomatoes are gone, she suggests using the oil for salad dressing. Will do!

My camera refused to focus on the tomatoes. They're prettier than they look here.

Conclusion: Love. These would be a flavor-packed addition to all sorts of pasta dishes, and I'm daydreaming about topping a nice, juicy burger with them. mmmmm

Now, on to the sandwich! I'm going to say up front that this was unexpectedly delicious. I thought it would be good, but it's one of those examples of all the components coming together to make a better whole. The quality of the ingredients is a huge factor in this sandwich, and between Dorie's tomatoes, my homemade bread, and the fresh goat cheese that I bought from a brand new vendor at my weekend farmer's market, it was shockingly good.

Feed my face.

First you mix together the chopped up tomatoes, a good bit of oil, fresh basil, tarragon, and thyme. I used oregano instead of tarragon, because my plant is enormous. Slice a zucchini and a Japanese eggplant lengthwise, then coat the slices in the oil/herb/tomato mixture. Grill them.

To assemble the sandwich, smear the remaining tomato mixture and then the goat cheese on the slices of bread. This was harder than I expected, because the goat cheese didn't want to adhere. I'd let it warm up a little next time, so it's more spreadable. Layer the grilled veg on one side of the sandwich, and put some spinach on the other side. Smash together, and devour.

Conclusion: Loved this, with the caveat that it needs to have superior ingredients. It wouldn't be as great with a supermarket baguette and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes. We had this for dinner, and I didn't miss meat. Matt said he would accept not eating meat for dinner because he'd had a pulled pork sandwich for lunch. Eye roll.