This grilled Italian antipasto sandwich is the perfect sandwich for all of your upcoming BBQ’s. The days of boring vegetarian dinners are over because this sandwich is absolutely loaded, and can satisfy even the most carnivorous members of your family.
If you’ve ever attended a BBQ as a vegetarian/vegan, you’ve probably made a sandwich that goes a bit like this… A burger bun, most of the condiments available, some lettuce and a slice of tomato… Let’s not do that anymore…
This sandwich features a fresh Italian ciabatta piled high with eggplant, zucchini, onion, bell peppers, and pesto. It is absolutely fabulous. Don’t just take my word for it, give it a try and let me know what you think!
Grilled Italian Antipasto Sandwich
I’ll be honest with you and say that this sandwich came to me from a place of pure laziness. I had such a strong craving for an eggplant parmesan sandwich the other day, but I just didn’t want to put in the work. Frying eggplant can be quite the process. This sandwich was the easiest way to achieve those same flavors, while saving a ton of time, and having a bunch of leftovers!
Serving Recommendations and Adjustments
We love to batch cook around here, so the recipe for these sandwiches will yield a large amount of grilled vegetable mix. If you don’t enjoy eating leftovers, or having a quick option for work the following day, I recommend reducing the recipe by half. This mixture will hold very well in the fridge for about 4 days, so it is ultimately your call. This recipe, without modifications will yield around 8 large sandwiches.
If you end up with too many grilled vegetables and you’re tired of eating sandwiches, I highly recommend throwing the vegetables in your favorite pasta sauce and serving it over penne. Just to switch things up a bit.
Cooking Tips
Eggplant
One important step to take when preparing this recipe is to salt the eggplant before cooking. Salting the eggplant will remove excess liquid and the bitterness in the eggplant. I usually salt eggplant quite heavily with Kosher salt, and let it sit for about 15 minutes before rinsing it off with cold water, and patting it dry.
Salting helps create a creamy texture inside of the eggplant and prevents any bitterness. I’ve noticed that unsalted eggplant will typically result in a firmer and more fibrous bite. In addition, salting will help season the eggplant from the inside out.
Grilling
Since the vegetables will be grilled, I definitely recommend slicing them in a way that will prevent them from falling through the grates of your BBQ. I prefer to keep the veggies fairly large, and slicing the zucchini lengthwise. Once they are grilled, then I will chop up the mix into bite sized pieces. This just saves us a bit of time during the grilling process, and we don’t lose any of our vegetables.
Putting It All Together
After the vegetables are grilled and chopped up, all that is left to do is make the sandwiches. We used a store bought pesto for this recipe to save on time, so feel free to do the same! I don’t currently have my own pesto recipe developed, but that sounds like something I can work out shortly.
Toast up the ciabatta buns (we use these ones), spread some pesto on ’em, pile ’em up high with our delicious grilled vegetable mix, and add a slice of provolone or your favorite cheese to finish it off.
These are so simple, yet so satisfying. Let me know what you think about them! I hope I could provide a bit of BBQ inspiration now that the weather is more favorable for grilling. Enjoy xox
Grilled Italian Antipasto Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 2 Italian eggplants
- 3 green zucchini
- 2 white onions
- 2 bell peppers any color works here
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Kosher salt half for salting the eggplant
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 8 slices provolone cheese
- 1 cup mixed salad greens
- ½ cup green basil pesto
- 8 Ciabatta Buns
Instructions
- Preheat the grill on high heat.
- Cut the zucchini, eggplant and onions into ½ inch thick pieces. The zucchini should be cut lengthwise, the onion crosswise, and the eggplant whichever way you like. Cutting the zucchini lengthwise will prevent it from falling through the grill slats while we grill it.
- Heavily salt the eggplant pieces to remove any bitterness and excess liquid for about 10 minutes. Rinse under cold water to remove salt, and pat dry. Set aside.
- Remove the seeds and pith of the bell peppers. Cut them into halves, preserving the tops and bottoms to be grilled.
- Coat all of the vegetables in olive oil, and season liberally with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.
- Grill the vegetables, flipping them a few times. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, until the vegetables have nice grill marks. Remove the vegetables and cover for about 10 minutes to steam and soften.
- Once the vegetables are softened, and have cooled down enough to handle with your hands, begin cutting them into bite sized pieces.
- On your toasted sandwich bread, spread pesto on the top and bottom slices, and add about ¼ cup of the chopped grilled vegetable mixture. Top with a slice of provolone cheese, and salad greens.