What's for Dinner

I am a contributor on another blog,
What's for Dinner, where members post
recipes and photos, and there are always
lots of good things to eat! It was conceived
by my friend Emily (a fantastic writer) who also
authors Tofu Hunter -- a review of vegetarian/vegan
restaurants or veg. options at restaurants in the
Seattle area. Please do stop by!

This is What Was For Dinner last night:

Pan-bagnat, a sandwich whose origins lie in Nice
(that would be Nice, France). It's basically a deli-type
sandwich, drizzled in vinaigrette, then wrapped tightly
and weighted-down for several hours so all the nice
flavors can infuse. One of the things I especially
like about this is that you use no butter or mayonnaise,
so while the cholesterol hit is reduced, there is no
loss in flavor. (And I can feel less guilty eating salame
and cheese!)

I started with a loaf of ciabatta, sliced it horizontally,
then brushed it with a homemade vinaigrette.
R. was visiting, and he's the Wizard of Sauces and
the Whisk King, so he went to work on the vinaigrette.
I honestly can't say what he does differently from me,
but his vinaigrette is To Die For. (And I don't make
a half-bad vinaigrette!)

After the drizzle, I layered-on lettuce leaves,
provolone, Calabrese salame, sliced tomatoes
and chopped green olives. I topped it with the
other half of the ciabatta, drizzled some more,
wrapped the thing in plastic, then put it in a dish
and weighted it down with four large cans of tomatoes
placed inside another dish.

One thing about weighting the Pan-bagnat down
is that it's easier to eat than your usual overstuffed
deli sandwich -- the fillings don't slip and slide
out of the bread quite so much. And the vinaigrette
gives everything a nice little kick.



I also par-boiled for five minutes some filet green
beans, blanched them in ice water to stop the cooking,
then tossed them with some diced red onion and more
of R.'s vinaigrette. They went into the refrigerator
for more chilling.



And then there was watermelon with lime slices.
If you haven't tried watermelon this way, it's time
you did.



This was a perfect late-August dinner, not too heavy.
(Although we could've eaten more Pan-bagnat than
we did. Not that we needed them, I'm just saying.)

Dee-vine!