Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Eggplant and Tomatoes
Independent
"What's more American than a grilled cheese sandwich? I like mine fried in a frying pan and weighted down so the bread is browned and the cheese oozes out."
Buy Joan Nathan's JBF Award–winning cookbook, The New American Cooking, from our Amazon store.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 medium eggplant (about 1 pound) cut in 1/2-inch-thick rounds
- 1 tomato, sliced, or 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained
- 8 thick slices of Vermont cheddar cheese
- 8 slices of whole-wheat bread
- 2 tablespoons butter
Method
Preheat the broiler and set the rack 4 inches below the top. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Mix the oil with the salt, pepper, and garlic in a small bowl. Dip the eggplant slices in the oil, shaking to get rid of any excess oil, and place on the baking sheet. Place under the broiler for 5 minutes or until the eggplant is golden. Flip the eggplant over, continue cooking until golden, remove, and cook on the cookie sheet.
Place the eggplant and the tomatoes in a medium mixing bowl. Don’t worry about the excess oil.
When ready to make the sandwiches, place a piece of cheese on each slice of bread, and add about 1/4 cup of the eggplant and tomatoes on each of the 4 slices. Top with the other 4 bread slices.
Melt butter in a skillet or griddle over medium heat and grill the sandwiches a few minutes on each side, until the crust is crisp, golden brown.
Yield
4 sandwiches
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