Grilled Eggplant Panini

By Martha Rose Shulman

Grilled Eggplant Panini
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
About 30 minutes
Rating
4(77)
Comments
Read comments

Grilling eggplant slices on a panini grill is worth the price of the grill. They’re ready in 2 or 3 minutes, and if you don’t use them for this sandwich you can top them with tomato sauce, chop them up and toss them with pasta or rice, or drizzle them with vinaigrette and sprinkle with feta and fresh herbs, such as mint, parsley, basil, or marjoram.

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Ingredients

Yield:Serves 1

    For Each Panini

    • 2 to 4½-inch thick slices eggplant (depending on the size of the eggplant)
    • Salt
    • Extra virgin olive oil
    • 1tablespoon pesto (optional)
    • ½grilled red pepper or 2 to 3 slices tomato
    • Freshly ground pepper
    • 2tablespoons grated cheese, such as mozzarella, fontina, Gruyère, Parmesan, or a combination
    • 2thick slices country bread
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and let sit for 15 minutes. Pat dry and brush lightly with olive oil.

  2. Step 2

    Preheat a panini grill and place the eggplant slices in it in an even layer. Grill 3 minutes, until cooked through and nicely marked by the grill. Remove from the heat.

  3. Step 3

    Spread a little pesto on the bottom slice of bread. Top with a layer of eggplant slices, then a layer of pepper or tomato slices. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper. Top with the grated cheese and the other slice of bread. Brush the outside of both the bottom and the top pieces of bread with olive oil. Grill 5 minutes, or until nicely toasted and the cheese has melted. Remove from the panini grill and cut into halves or thirds, depending on the size of the bread. Serve hot.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
77 user ratings
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Comments

Jasper Kyle

Hello, You do need to salt both sides of the eggplant. You have probably already cooked the dish by now, by in case you haven't...

Sandra

Add arugula and perhaps carmelized onions

Autumn

Be sure not to slice

NMR

We used baby eggplants from our garden but the tomatoes weren't ripe yet, so we used pizza sauce. Substituted Vermont cheddar for mozzarella and added a blobs of ricotta & pesto. These were easy & divine.

Cara

I added pepperoni to mine. Yum.

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