Yesterday I had a Holiday party at my good friends Wayne and Susan’s House were they invite their friends before the crazy Christmas time where nobody has time to do anything. It s pot luck style. I was requested to bring antipasto. I was going to bring home made Baba Ghanoush but I forgot to order the fresh pita from Lebanese store, so I would not be happy serving pita from the supermarket than my Plan B was to do my Italian recipe of Mediterranean salad that in my house we would serve as antipasto in a hard toast, what I never found it here to buy. But coincidentally we went to a wine Black Friday Sale at La GROTTA, on Taylor Ave and I found the Italian Toast there!
I normally do this recipe with lots of eggplant and that is the similar version you will find here : https://www.priscillakerr.com/roasted-indian-eggplants-with-shallots-and-garlic.\
But the truth is that I had only one big black eggplant so I had to do a different way to combine other veggies. I used garlic, Brussels sprouts , onions, sweet peppers and eggplant. I put the antipasto on top of the toast and I arranged them in a tray and got extra Antipasto in a separate bowl and left there for the guests. In 10 min the whole tray was gone and one guest, who is a good cooker asked me to write down the recipe, so hear we go Diane!
Ingredients:
One Large Black Eggplant
3 sweet peppers ( 2 yellow , one orange)
3 large yellow onions
3 cups of Brussels sprouts ( not chopped)
1 garlic head
1/2 cup of dried organic cranberries
1/3 cup of chopped Italian parsley
1 table spoon of FINI, Reduction of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, 5.1 fl oz
kosher salt
black pepper
Italian herbs
Greek herbs
oregano
Chipotle chile powder
extra virgin olive oil
parchment paper
Italian Toast ( Buon Mattino -Paese Mio /La Grotta) 320 gr
How to prepare it:
I got 2 trays. One for the egg plant and other for the others veggies. Turn on the oven to 350 F. Get the Eggplant. Cut in half , you will had 2 long pieces, than sprinkle kosher salt, Italian and Greek herbs and the Chipotle powder ( not more than One tea spoon for both halfs) only on the inside of the eggplant. Than Add 1 table spoon of oil in each half. Cover the tray with parchment paper and face down the eggplants, with Skin facing UP. Separate it.
Get a large bowl . Separate for later the second tray with the parchment paper. Using the Bowl to better mix the ingredients , cut the onions in half as well as the peppers, after you washed and removed the seeds. And I washed the Brussels sprouts and I DID NOT cut them whatsoever otherwise they will get apart and will not look classy. Sprinkle the salt ( 2 table spoon for all ) , ground black pepper ( 1 table spoon) and 1 table spoon of Italian and Greek Herbs together . Than Drizzle 1/3 cup of olive oil . Now with your hands mix very well making sure everything got seasoning equally and transfer to the tray.
Now get aluminium Foil, like the size of a dessert plate. With a sharp Knife cut the extreme top of a whole garlic head without any peeling. Make a basket with your aluminum and sit the garlic head there with the part you cu facing Up. Add 2 table spoon of Olive oil, one tea spoon of salt and 1/2 tea spoon of Chipotle powder. Wrap it the basket and transfer to the tray with the other veggies. Put on the Oven the 2 trays at 350 F for one hour and 10 minutes .
Once is ready, Take everything from the oven and wait 15 min to cut.
Get a small container and squeeze the garlic out , will look like a garlic paste. Than mix 1 table spoon of the balsamic vinegar. Add one extra table spoon of Olive oil, 1 tea spoon of kosher salt and 1 tea spoon of dried oregano mix well and Separate it. Leave the parsley ready to use it. Get the eggplant, Chop in small pieces, 3cmx 3cm . As well as the peppers and the onions. Get the Brussels sprouts , it s the time to remove the stalks whatever it s too hard to chew. And than I cut in half of the smallest ones and the big ones I would chop in 4 small pieces. Chop the cranberries very small and mix all together, Than get the container with the garlic + balsamic + herbs mix well one more time before adding to the antipasto. Last thing is the parsley. After everything is well mixed make sure the salt and pepper is seasoned enough for your taste. I like it more salty because the toast is neutral.
Get the toasts and put 1-2 table spoon of the antipasto on top and transfer the finished product to a large serving tray. Guests will love it! Good thing that I got extra toasts and extra antipasto in a bowl otherwise the guests would be frustrated that it was gone so fast. They helped themselves for more.
Enjoy! It ‘s healthy, vegetarian, Vegan , Dairy free and TCM approved . If you want Gluten free just put on top of a rice cracker. I added a photo from last year party, I forgot to take photos yesterday.
