Grilled Fresh Veggie Sandwich

I thought I'd play with my pastry cutters a little last night. I currently only own a fluted set, like this one but much cheaper. There are so many things one can do with a good set of pastry cutters, it's mind boggling. In my case, I decided to make a designer sandwich.

I took the second largest cutter and cut out a couple of bread rounds from a large slice of sourdough bread. You can dry the scraps out in the oven and turn them into bread crumbs if you want, so there's no waste. Then I browned them a little in a pan with some butter, like I would a grilled cheese sandwich, but just one one side each. I set them aside, added a little more butter to the pan, and cooked up some thin slices of zucchini and yellow sqaush, just enough to give them some color, and then set them aside to cool. I also took a piece of red bell pepper, cut out a round with the third largest cutter, and cooked it the same way. To be honest, I wish I had just had some jarred pimiento to use instead.

Then I took one slice of bread and put it on a plate, grilled side down. I added a layer of baby greens, topped that with the thin slices of zucchini and yellow squash, then added the bell pepper. I took the third largest cutter and cut out a round of provolone, and put that on top of the bell pepper. You can save the scraps for pizza, or just munch on them. I topped with the last piece of bread, grilled side up, and stuck a party toothpick in it. Lame, but more photogenic than without.

It was a good sandwich, but there were a couple of things wrong with it. Mainly, there was too much bell pepper. I think had I used jarred pimiento (or a fire roasted red bell pepper, for you snobs out there), it would have been better. Also, there was too much, so I should have gone with half of what I used. And let's face it, using a cutter for something going inside the sandwich was probably just wasted effort. But using the cutter on the bread is definitely not wasted effort. It looks nice. Polished. Fancy. Like you could charge an extra couple of bucks for it.

And why did I call it a grilled fresh veggie sandwich? Well, first of all, there are fresh lettuce greens on it. Second, the veggies should be cold when you serve it. Fine, just call it a grilled cold veggie sandwich. See if I care.