Throw Down.

Anyone ever watch Throw Down with Bobby Flay? Well if not, here's the deal: Bobby finds the "best of the best" chef, cook, whoever, that makes a certain food (my fave was chicken pot pie!) and he challenges them to a "throw down" where they each make the dish and judges choose who wins. It is always really fun to watch and the food always looks amazing.

Bobby is also my Food Network crush. What? You don't have one of those? Well, you do now. I'm not sure what we'd throw down over though. I don't exactly have a signature dish or something I make really really well. Maybe oatmeal? I make a mean bowl of oatmeal. Bring it Bobby.

Recently I turned on Food Network and Bobby's other show "Grill It" was on. Usually he's cooking up some kind of meat, but when I saw that he was doing a vegetarian recipe I knew it was fate and this recipe would have to make an appearance at Meatless Monday.


This week's recipe is Grilled Eggplant and Fresh Mozzarella on Ciabatta with Roasted Red Peppers, Garlic Mayo, Fresh Basil, and Arugula. Say that five times fast.

Hold up! Not only is B Flay cooking up some veggie cuisine, this recipe looks like it was made with my very own garden in mind. Eggplant? Yes. Red peppers? Supposedly. Basil? You know it! Yes, Bobby must have had me in mind when he put together this sandwich.

My first purple beauty of the season.



So... when I bought this plant it was marked "red peppers" but this pepper is decidedly green.

The recipe is kind of a snap. First, grill your red peppers (courtesy of Hen House, not my garden) until they are charred on all sides:

After they have charred up nice, place them in a bowl, cover, and let them steam for ten minutes.

Meanwhile... grill your eggplant slices with a bit of olive oil:

Umm... that eggplant slice up there in the top right looks a little funny. Truth be told, Drew is not a huge eggplant fan, so just in case the sandwich was not to his liking, he had a side of steak to fall back on. So, not exactly meatless Monday for him. In other news, we made this recipe on a Friday, not a Monday... I'm all about honesty.

Toast the ciabatta for about 30 seconds on the grill so it crisps up nice. I couldn't find a loaf, but I found some tasty ciabatta rolls that worked out wonderfully. Ciabatta believe it.

After the peppers have steamed, remove the skins and seeds and slice 'em up nice. Layer the eggplant, peppers, sliced fresh mozzarella, basil, arugula (skipped it), and garlic mayo (half a cup mayo mixed with 3 cloves smashed garlic and salt) on your ciabatta:

Ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong.

Then feed to husband with a side of steak:

Just so we aren't all oohing and aahing over how great Drew is to take all these pictures and eat my vegetarian recipes, note that he was just flipping me and my camera off with his free hand in the above photo. That is why he is smiling so big, not because he is excited about eggplant.

I was in love love love with this sandwich! It was so so so good. The fresh veggies paired so nicely with the bite of garlic in the mayo, and everything tastes better straight off the grill. Drew really liked it too and finished the whole thing. FYI: he did not finish the steak.

"Dad, give me that steak."

If Bobby were coming to your town, what would your "throw down" be? What is the best thing you make? And don't say oatmeal.

Happy {Meatless} Monday!