Sandwich with roasted bell peppers, eggplant and zucchini

I love to try new cuisines. Over the years in US, I have grown to love italian, american, mexican and thai cuisines. It was totally not the case when I first went to restaurants here.

I was petrified seeing the super sized plates filled with unknown flavours. Mexican platters used to be my nightmare. Ravi loves mexican so he was excited to take me to mexican restaurants and introduce the cuisine to me but the strings of chicken in the guey cheese sauce with blood red sauce made be feel puky - just seeing the enchiladas. Ravi had this novel idea of not sharing food - his justification was he ended up eating more because I made him eat my order and his too. So I felt sooo guilty for wasting food but there was noooo way I could finish them.

Over the years, the foodie in me emerged and I tried all food that came my way. But I never could try any of this at home. I have this strongg inhibition not to try anything beyond indian cooking at home. In all the six years I have tried thai curry twice, pasta twice.

But seeing other bloggers ace in international cuisines, I always had the urge to try them. Finally I broke out of my shell yesterday and set up a minimalistic italian-pantry. The first dish I tried is a sandwich with roasted bellpepper, roasted eggplant and roasted zucchini. If you are like me, its the perfect recipe to start.

Minimalistic italian pantry


Grilling peppers : Spread the slices of pepper srayed with olive oil on a aluminium foil and place them directly in the top most rack in the broiler mode for 7 to 9 minutes. Take it out into a paper bag and close the bag. After 10 minutes, peel the skin off.

Grilling eggplant and zucchini : Slice the veggies and sprinkle italian seasoning and brush balsamic vinegar and olive oil over the veggies and sprinkle black pepper. Grill/Bake in oven at 400 degree for 15 to 20 mins

I grilled the veggies over the weekend and refrigerated.

Oven grilled bellpepper


Eggplant, zucchini - dash of italian grilled seasoning, balsamic vinegar and olive oil


Assembling the sandwich :
Brush a side of the bread with the vinegar and olive oil. place slices of grilled veggies and top with mozarella cheese. Top with a slice of bread. Place the sandwich on a grill/pan and place a heavy weight and press. I placed my stone mortar over the sandwich. Leave it over medium heat for 6 minutes. Repeat on other side.

Grilled sandwich

The taste was simple and just the way I loved it. I could have used a better cheese -I bought kraft fat free mozarella - a huge mistake, it tasted like rubber. I have this sandwich for lunch from a sandwich shop and they use brie - it is sinfully tasty. Also I would have liked to have more balsamic vinegar.

Last weekend, seven bloggers from bay area met and we had a blast. The cooker is starting the sprint about the meet - Check this out