Eggplant Pepper Sandwiches - Vegetarian

Okay, this has a really good taste. Two things. One, the baguette taste is wonderful but it does make it chewy. French bread might work in lieu of it, but the taste will be different and possibly not quite as good. Second, it's messy - contents will squish out as you eat from time to time. Despite this, it has a good and unusual taste!

Increasing the size
I doubled the recipe to feed four. I would suggest 1.5 times the recipe to feed four. The recipe as it stands would probably work at 3/4 size for feeding two on one baguette with a fruit salad or the like on the side. A full recipe, if you get a large eggplant, will probably be too large to fill just one baguette.

Eggplant and Pepper Sandwiches (prep 15, cook 10, ready 25)

• 1 eggplant, seeded and cut lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
• salt and pepper to taste*
• 1 French baguette
• 2 ounces soft goat cheese
• 1/4 cup tapenade (olive spread)**
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese***

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven broiler.
2. Place the eggplant and red bell pepper on a medium baking sheet, and season with salt and pepper. Broil 5 to 10 minutes, until tender and slightly browned.
3. Cut baguette in half lengthwise. Spread bottom half with goat cheese, followed by tapenade. Layer with eggplant and red pepper, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Cover with top half of baguette. Cut into 4 pieces. Serve hot or cold.

* I didn't use salt. The olive spread and goat cheese have quite a bit of salt already. I left it out on the peppers and eggplant allowing people to add salt later if they wanted.

** Tapenade comes in many flavors apparently. What I found is pretty close if it's not the real thing and it is a caper and olive spread that I found at Smiths next to the olives. The brand is Peloponnese. So, hopefully that will help in your search.

*** Since this is already a messy meal. I sliced my parmesian cheese and that made it less messy.