Thursday, March 24, 2011

Puffy antipasto sandwiches for your convenience

Puff pastry sheets (PPS) are an overlooked convenience food.

I came to this conclusion after buying a packet of PPS to make something (forgotten what; I have a mind like a fine sieve). The PPS come in bundles of 6 sheets, which is great if you're making lots of sausage rolls for the tuckshop, but otherwise, they tend to hang around in the freezer for ages.

So I wandered through my extensive library of magazines (located in the East wing of my mansion, ha!) and found this quick recipe for some puffy sandwiches.  To make it even quicker I bought the roasted veges from the delicatessen, but you can roast your own if you like.  You only need one sheet of PPS to make 2 sambos, so invite your appetite, or your friends, if you want to use up those sheets. 

Antipasto Sandwiches
serves 2

Ingredients
1 sheet of puff pastry, approx 30cm (12in) square 
2 tblsp grated parmesan
2 tblsp bought pesto
50g roasted eggplant
50g roasted capsicum
8 small bocconcini, sliced
1 ripe tomato, sliced
Salad leaves, to serve

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 180°C.
2.  Cut the pastry sheet into four equally-sized pieces. Place on a lightly greased baking tray and sprinkle with parmesan. Prick two of the pastry pieces with a fork to stop them rising too much. Bake the pastry for 10 minutes until light golden, then set aside to cool.
3.  Spread pricked pastry sheets with pesto, then layer each with roasted vegetables, bocconcini and tomato. Season with black pepper. Place the other piece of pastry, cheese-side up, on top and return to oven for 5 minutes to heat through.
4.  Serve the puffy sandwiches with salad leaves drizzled with olive oil

recipe adapted from delicious (Sept 2002)
Ingredients: roasted eggplant and capsicum (store-bought), little bocconcini, tomato and rocket leaves
The pastry is sprinkled with parmesan and baked till puffy and golden
Layer on your ingredients. Tall food is good food.
Bake until the cheese becomes soft and melty
And devour.
This would make a lovely light lunch. If only I had access to an oven at lunchtime rather than a city foodcourt full of non-puffy sandwiches...

13 comments:

  1. Can you believe I've never actually cooked with puffed pastry before? Doesn't that just seem wrong?

    This sandwich sounds delicious! Love those antipasto veggies.

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  2. OMG... what a great idea! Stealing this :P

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  3. I've never had the problem of having too many puuf pastry sheets in our household before :P But then again...we do have 4 people with huge appetites :D I've never had a puff pastry sandwich before though- but I do love puff pastry and this looks very delicious- I know what I'll be making next time I need a quick lunch! :D:D
    I'd love to have access to an oven at lunchtime....there's so many things I'd make! haha...

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  4. hehe, you've made a sort of open sided pie! It looks absolutely delicious! What a great idea!

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  5. Puff pastry sandwich - genius. I love puff pastry anything though. Mmmm

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  6. Your puffy sandwiches would make a killing in a city foodcourt (and I don't just mean through cholesterol, boom boom! ;) )

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  7. This is so cute! The bocconcini sure caught my attention :) Love the layering of all the amazing ingredients

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  8. this is ingenious. never thought to use PPS this way. lovely pics btw.

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  9. This is beyond ingenious. That iced-up container of puff in my freezer is starting to look much better now. I bow down to you, Bel. In admiration and, er, just in case there are a few stray crunchy flakes of puff on the floor

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  10. Your sandwich sounds wonderful and is quite original. I'd love to have one on my plate. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  11. I will keep this in mind. I always have puff pastry in my freezer. I will definitely grill my own veg. This will make a nice lunch.

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  12. You have used my two favourite things! Puff and antipasto!! Oh its like my perfect meal haha :)
    Hello dinner for when Stud is at the football!

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