Cheesy Eggplant Sandwiches

So yesterday I was home sick, but I'd begun to recover around 4:00. Having eaten nothing all day, I was seeking something brilliant. Thankfully, I'd shopped the other day for ingredients from a Food & Wine recipe for Cheesy Eggplant Sandwiches. My two hearty eggplants in the fridge were screaming to be fried in something delicious.

The gist of the recipe is to bread and fry 16 slices of eggplant. Then you mix up provolone and feta cheese, basil and parsley leaves, sauteed onion and a little salt and pepper. Spread this cheese mix in between two slices of fried eggplant to make an eggplant sandwich. Bake 8 sandwiches for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Drizzle lightly with pomegranate molasses (which I had to make myself since the store was out).

It sounds like weird combinations - fried eggplant, cheese and molasses? But it was DIVINE! Eggplant is such a neutral vegetable, so you can use it as a foundation for really distinct toppings. The molasses was pretty powerful, so I'd recommend only a very light drizzle.

Frying eggplant in vats of oil made for quite a smoky house, but thankfully we were able to look past the billowing clouds of smoke to enjoy a new recipe. Today, however, my clothes definitely smell like fried eggplant. Hope my colleagues like eggplant!