Happy Friday Ladies and Gents! I hope you all are enjoying the constant snow that has been falling for over twenty four hours now! It is supposed to continue for another twenty four too, lets keep our fingers crossed this is the LAST big snowstorm of the season. February 2010 has been snow central for us New Yorkers, right? Lets hope instead of March going in like a lion and out like a lamb, March is completely lamb like...
I got to thinking this morning while running in the snow in a beautiful yet un-plowed Central Park about our beloved acronym for Friday - TGIF, thank god its Friday! I remember while growing up a television station even had a whole evening of programming dedicated to TGIF. Who doesn't enjoy it? For most of us in the work force, it means we have two whole days off and away from the office, now isn't that exciting! I know I am excited, mostly due to the fact that I do not have to get up at 6 am to go running, that I can go running just a little later, is totally thrilling. Let me propose to you another acronym, GCF - Grilled Cheese Fridays! Easy, simple, meals that don't require too much time or commitment from you after a long week at work, good to accompany a beverage, great to eat on the run before going out, or well pretty much any time of day. But I thought for our blog purposes, we'd start a little tradition of GCFs, now that doesn't mean that we wouldn't have grilled cheese recipes other days of the week, but it's kind of a nice treat to specifically focus on them on Fridays.
Today, I thought we would do a play on a ratatouille -- a ratatouille grilled cheese! Doesn't that sound delish? I know it sounds great to me! It's simple, easy, and delish. Ratatouille in case you are not familiar with it is a classic Provencal dish that basically allows roasted vegetables the opportunity to sing! It is typically a mixture of garlic, onions, tomatoes (the fixture), zucchini, carrots, eggplants, bell peppers, basil, marjoram, bay leaves (if you feel like it), thyme, and some olive oil. Some people like to saute all the ingredients together, some people like to layer and bake them. It is as classic a dish as you can come for Provencal flavors.
For our sandwich, I am going to propose a little bit of a different route:
Start with one of Grandaisy's medium ciabattas, perfect for making this large sandwich and a nice crunch. Start by toasting both sides of bread, then on either side, spread a sundried tomato paste, if you are feeling up to it, you can make your own here, but if you are feeling like you are in a Friday lazy mode, Fairway sells a great sundried tomato paste. Now take a zucchini and eggplant and slice them so you can get thin long slices that you can then place on a stove top grill or a George Foreman grill with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled parmesan to get their flavors to pop. Once they are nicely browned and cooked through, take them off place them on top of the sundried tomato paste. In a different pan, I recommend sauteing sliced up garlic, onions, carrots, tomoatoes, and a half a red bell pepper with all of the above mentioned herbs, I like to add oregano too. I like to cook this so that all the flavors meld together, but not for too too long, like five to seven minutes over medium heat, then turn it on really low heat while you cut your cheeses. This sandwich will contain two cheeses: first off, Cabra Romero (which we discussed previously and is a young Spanish Goat cheese with a rosemary rind. This cheese will be great because it will accentuate the herbaceous qualities of the classic ratatouille where herbs de provence are definitely the star!) Then I think you want to keep with the goat and Spain theme for cheeses and go with a Garrotxa which means "worth knowing" in Catalan and it certainly is! Aged for about two to three months, this awesome goat cheese had a grey-ish moldy rind, but the most amazingly smooth finish and melted will be a nice cheese to meld all the flavors together. So once you have your cheeses ready to go on the sandwich, top with some of your carrot, tomato, pepper, aromatics mixture. Now you are ready to heat up your sandwich and consequently enjoy! I think this sandwich would go with at least in the winter, a nice Cotes du Rhone or even if you want to go the white route, a nice Sancerre. Keeping the French terroir going...however, I also think this is the sort of sandwich that being that it is meant to be comforting, you might want to go with a beverage of your choice that is comforting! A beer even?
Enjoy guys and stay dry getting home.
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