WC: Roasted Tomato, Mozzerella, and Spinach Sandwiches

Caprese salad is one of my all time favorites.  It’s such a simple salad with simple ingredients; spinach (or basil), tomatoes, mozzerella and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, but it’s so delicious, flavorful and refreshing.  So needless to say, when summer rolls around and we have tons of ripe, red tomatoes on the vine I am one happy girl!  Although it’s not summer anymore we still have tons of tomatoes in our garden.  Not sure if we have magic dirt or if it’s just a benefit of living in Arkansas and having ever changing weather; from day to day!  Either way, I will take it because it’s that much longer I can enjoy my beloved caprese salad.

While caprese salad is amazing on it’s own, over the past few months I’ve seen these simple ingredients incorporated into recipes and they all look amazing.  This sandwich is one of those recipes I’ve been eyeing and wanting to try for quite some time.  And now I’m finally getting to!  For this round of the What’s Cooking recipes swap it was blogger’s choice.  What that means is we get to choose the recipe we make from our assigned blog.  It didn’t take me long to figure out what I was going to make from Kate’s blog, that’s right this roasted tomato, mozzerella and spinach sandwich!

Boy, did this sandwich ever live upto my expectations.  It was incredible!  My only issue is why I waited so long to make this.  I loved every single thing about this sandwich, even better is it’s a sinch to throw together.  The roasted tomatoes added so much flavor.  You could give me a fork and pan of roasted tomatoes and I would gladly eat them. All.  Don’t worry, I didn’t, I saved them for the sandwiches.  Okay, back to the sandwich.  The roasted tomatoes are stacked on top of the fresh mozzerella, and the heat from tomatoes slighlty melts the mozzerella and that makes the sandwich that much better.  A drizzle of that candy-like balsamic, a little spinach and another piece of toasted bread.  Oh my gosh, it’s so good and it doesn’t get much better than this sandwich!  I served this on whole clove garlic bread from a local bakery, and it just added that much more flavor to the meal.  Serve this sandwich with your favorite soup and you’ve got a light, tasty and flavorful meal in no time!

Roasted Tomato, Mozzerella, and Spinach Sandwich

 Ingredients:

1 Large tomato
1/2 Cup baby spinach
5 Oz fresh mozzerella, sliced slighlty thin
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar, for drizzling
4 Thick slices crusty bread

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.  Spray a rimmed baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. 

Thickly slice the tomato, slices should be about 1/4 inch thick.  Place tomatoes on prepared baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Place in oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place a large skillet over low-medium heat and allow to preheat.  Once skillet is warm, drizzle one side of each piece of bread with olive oil and place oiled side down in the preheated pan.  Allow to toast until golden, about 2-3 minutes.  Drizzle the tops with olive oil and flip each piece, allow to toast an additional 2-3 minutes, until golden.  Remove from heat. 

To assemble-
Place equal amounts of mozzerella on 2 pieces of toasted bread.  Top the mozzerella with tomoatoes.  Place the spinach on the empty pieces of bread.  Drizzle the tomatoes, to taste, with balsamic vinegar.  Place the spinach and bread on top of the tomatoe and mozzerella topped bread.  Serve.

Recipe source: adapted from Kate’s Recipe Box, originally from BBC Good Food