Just Roll With It

We love it when a plan comes together, but we love it even more when a last minute substitution is possibly better than the original idea. We planned to grill fish kabobs and fresh vegetables, but after checking 3 stores, Meg said “no fish this week”! So Thursday night we brainstormed and decided to “roll with it”. Meg is a big fan of the torta rolls from Costco and happened to have bought a package of them. We took stock of our pantries and refrigerators and came up with these wonderful sandwiches.

Both sandwiches included:

• Split toasted torta rolls
• Provolone cheese
• Roasted garlic aioli (recipe below)
• Roasted red bell pepper
• Grilled eggplant slices

Sue’s sandwich also had:

• Grilled red onion
• Grilled zucchini strips

Meg’s sandwich had:

• Fresh cucumber strips

Roasted Garlic Aioli
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials  06/14/14
Makes about ½ cup

6 garlic cloves, roasted
1 tsp. white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. really good olive oil
2 Tbsp. beaten egg

Add all of the ingredients except olive oil to a blender and blend on high until thoroughly mixed. Drizzle in olive oil until emulsified.

Do not eat it all before you put it on the sandwiches.

The heirloom tomatoes have been beautiful and abundant the last couple weeks and inspired our Caprese salad. It doesn’t get much better than fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. A drizzle of the good olive oil, salt and pepper completes the salad. Can you say “summer”?

We chose a 2012 Nevada Frontenac included in Sue’s latest mix of wines from Tahoe Ridge Winery in Minden, Nevada. It went very well with our sandwiches. Frontenac was a new variety for us and we checked online and found that the 2014 Frontenac from Tahoe Ridge is a gold and silver medal winner. (Sue is checking to see how many bottles of this vintage she got in her case.)            

We were going to have fresh fruit for dessert, but Meg was still in pie mode and a Galette came to mind. It was Sue’s task to get simple vanilla ice cream, but she came home with Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean Gelato (because she could).

Blueberry Galette

Cream Pastry Crust
2  2/3  cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
7-8 Tbsp. half & half

Filling
4 cups blueberries
2 Tbsp. minute tapioca
1 Tbsp. sugar
Juice from ½ lemon
2 Tbsp. turbinado sugar
2 Tbsp. cream

Vanilla ice cream or gelato to serve

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.  In a food processor or mixer, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add the half & half, 1 T at a time, until dough clumps together.  Gather the dough with your fingers.  Wrap one third of the dough, refrigerate and reserve for future use.    Wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least ½ hour.

Mix blueberries, lemon juice, tapioca and sugar in a bowl and let sit for an hour.

Preheat oven to 375

Roll out pastry on a lightly floured work surface.   Transfer to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Pile blueberries in center and fold edges of crust over berries. Brush top of crust with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden on top and berries are bubbly.

Serve topped with ice cream.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

We loved these sandwiches! Yes, we picked ingredients that we love, but the combination of the toasted rolls with melted cheese, grilled vegetables, and the garlic dressing were stellar. This would be a great “build your own sandwich” idea for a party. Toast the rolls and melt the cheese on the top half. Lay out all of ingredients on platters and stand back.  One cautionary note: it can be juicy (read finger- licking good).

For the Galette we only used one tablespoon of sugar in the berries, so the true blueberry flavor came through. We got a little extra sweetness and crunch from the turbinado sugar on the crust. This may have taken care of the pie cravings around here (at least as long as the leftovers last).

We are looking forward to a “berry” good summer!