Roasted Zucchini, Goat Cheese & Olive Tapenade Sandwich Recipe

This is another serious sandwich in my collection of serious sandwiches. If I’m not mistaken, it measured in at 18 inches. That’s impressive. Any time a recipe calls for a 24 inch baguette, I know they’re talking business.

The Recipe

This recipe takes advantage of summer vegetables. While zucchini is the primary ingredient, Swiss chard comes in a close second. I’m more than happy to use both, as our gardens have been producing quite actively.

I’m not sure the roll called for in this recipe needs to be a “baguette.” I used any long type I found in the supermarket. You could go with some Italian bread or French, if you want. Also, since this sandwich is so simple, it can easily be added to. I think sun dried tomatoes would have been nice, along with some pickles or something like that.

Basically, what we have here is some roasted zucchini, topped with an extremely tasty olive tapenade and goat cheese. The chard is cut into strips and coated with salt, pepper and olive oil. Combined, the sandwich offers great moisture and chew, with flavor that can’t be beat.

Ingredients

Makes: 4 Sandwiches

2 Large Zucchini, Halved and Sliced into 1/4 Inch Planks
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
Regular Olive Oil
Regular Table Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1/4 Cup of Pitted Green Olives
1/4 Cup of Pitted Kalamata Olives
1 Tablespoon Shallot, Minced
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon Garlic, Minced
1 Teaspoon Capers
1 1/2 Cups Swiss Chard, Thinly Sliced
6 Ounces Goat Cheese, Room Temperature
1 Long Roll or Baguette, 18-24 Inches, Sliced Lengthwise

Step-by-Step Instructions

I’d like to thank America’s Test Kitchen and their cookbook titled The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook for the inspiration behind this recipe. I altered some ingredients and techniques, but the original idea was theirs.

Pre-Heat Oven

The very first thing you’re going to need to do is to pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. Arrange two racks so they are towards the middle.

Cook Zucchini

Coat two large baking sheets with regular olive oil and arrange all the planks of sliced zucchini on them. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the vegetable and when the oven is to temperature, place everything in it for about 10 minutes. At that time, remove the trays, flip the zucchini pieces and place the trays back into the oven. Mix things up at this point – trade racks and turn the sheets from front to back.

Continue cooking until the zucchini begins to turn brown. Don’t overdo it because they will dry out too much and will wither away into nothing. You want to keep some volume.

When they are finished, remove both trays from the oven and turn off heat. Alternatively, you can keep the heat on for another minute or so and toast both halves of the bread.

Make the Olive Tapenade

Add all the olives, 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, shallot, capers, lemon juice and garlic to your food processor.

Pulse a few times to chop everything up. You may need to use a rubber spatula to clear the material off the walls of the processor. At the end, it should look like this:

Prepare the Swiss Chard

In a medium sized bowl, add the slices of Swiss chard. Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper, along with 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil. Mix until the chard is coated well with the oil.

Build the Sandwich

At this point, the sandwich is ready to be put together. Spread half of the softened goat cheese on each side of the (toasted) bread and add the zucchini to it. Then, spread the olive tapenade on top of the zucchini.

After that, arrange the Swiss chard mixture on top of the tapenade.

Place the other half of the bread on top and carefully cut the entire sandwich into 4 equally sized pieces.

The Final Sandwich

If you aren’t licking your lips yet, you should be. First bite report: very good. Impressed by the juiciness. Half way through: just as happy and wanting a second piece. I really hope you give this sandwich a try. It’s an awesome recipe that you’ll be looking to use over and over again.