So that has GOT TO BE the fanciest recipe title I’ve come up with yet!
Because I used so much from the garden for this meal, I was able to be a little more creative and made up a delicious rosemary-garlic aioli sauce for these paninis!
These were “UH-MAZING,” according to the Hubs!
So if you’ve got an eggplant in the garden, or come across a great deal on eggplants…I highly recommend these paninis!!!!
Grilled Eggplant Panini with Rosemary-Garlic Aioli
Delicious panini made with grilled eggplant and homemade aioli.
Servings - 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant
- dashes of salt
- 1 loaf pugliese or ciabatta bread
- 1 large tomato
- 1 small zucchini thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp olive oil for aioli
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 tsp rosemary crushed
- salt and pepper
- 4 slices swiss cheese
- Handful basil leaves
- 3-4 tsp olive oil for sauteing and brushing bread
- 4 corn cobs side dish
Instructions
- Slice eggplant into 1/4 or smaller slices. Sprinkle with salt and let bitter juices draw out for about 10 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.
- Heat the grill to 400. Brush the sliced eggplant and zucchini with olive oil and grill on both sides for about 1 minute each.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, olive oil, crushed garlic, rosemary and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Assemble panini sandwiches by spreading aioli onto the insides of the bread, then adding the grilled eggplant, grilled zucchini, a slice of cheese. Brush the outsides of the bread with olive oil.
- Grill the paninis for 2-3 minutes per side, or until golden brown and cheese has melted.
Mary W says
Erin – Thanks so much for the recipe, it looks delish! I have eggplant and tomatoes in my garden so I’m making tomorrow night.
Heather says
looks really yummy and I don’t even like any of those ingredients. I am gonna try this recipe out and maybe it will convert me :o)
The Prudent Homemaker says
I love that you did htis on your regular grill and not on a fancy panini press!
I used to buy paninis in Lyon, France, and in Geneva, Switzerland. They were wonderful! My favorite in Lyon was a pesto chicken with emmenthal (Swiss cheese).
You’ve talked about buying zucchini before. Are you going to plant some zucchini in your garden next year? That would help cut the cost as well.
Another thing that would help is making that bread yourself. I make bread like that for a lot less than $2.50 a loaf. I make a French Bread and a Rosemary Olive Oil bread that would both work well as panini bread.
Suz says
Silly but necessary question — I’m allergic to eggplant — any substitution suggestions?
Rachael says
Oh yum! These look delish! I can’t wait to try these. Thanks so much! 🙂
Melissa says
Oh, yum. That looks wonderful! I’d probably use provolone instead of Swiss cheese (on second thought, I’d probably use whichever was on sale!), but it looks great either way.
Mary W says
Suz – In place of eggplant I’d suggest using a couple of different kinds of squash and heirloom tomatoes or adding roasted red bell pepper. You could also add thin slices of leftover chicken although that would really change the nature of the dish. Erin may have more ideas.
Mary W says
I made tonight (with my own adaptations) and it turned out great. I used mozzarella rather than Swiss and a pesto/yogurt dressing rather than aioli because I made pesto to freeze today. I used a cast iron skillet as the weigh rather than a brick.
Erin says
So glad you liked it! And I like the castiron idea, too!
Suz says
Thanks to Mary for the suggestions on eggplant substitution. This is now on our menu for this evening! And I should mention that our zucchini is FREE (thanks to generous neighbors) so that’s bringing down the price of dinner even more.
Love your blog, thanks so much!
Christina Baita says
This looks and sounds amazing! Thanks for the info on the eggplant. Not sure if I ever knew that or not about the salt. Also, I finally got a tomato off of my own plant and WOW! I didn’t realize it was suppose to taste like that. Yum! It had flavor. Real flavor. I can only dream of having a garden like yours one day.
Heather says
These were good and I am not really a big fan of any of the veggies it called for. I used provolone cheese instead of swiss but the rest of the recipe I followed to a T. I did use a cast iron grill pan and my trick to pressing sandwiches is that i take my tea kettle and fill it full with water and put a sheet of foil or a paper plate on the bottom and press down on the sandwiches and leave it be for a few minutes and then flip and do the same thing for the other side, works perfectly everytime.
Jan says
There were delicious when I made them last night. The eggplant took a lot longer to saute than I thought they would, but other than that it was delicious.
Erin says
Did you salt the eggplant? That usually speeds up the suate time.
Shannon says
Do you know if you can freeze eggplant and if so how? I have a couple left from my CSA share that I won’t be able to use before they go bad. Oh, and if you do freeze it how well does it thaw?
Erin says
If you freeze it, I would dice it up, as it will thaw “mush.” You could toss it into a pasta sauce or casserole…sneak it into lasagna and it wouldn’t matter! All is not lost 🙂
Amanda says
I take the eggplant slice it about 1/4″ slices, dredge it in an egg and olive oil mixture and then into some seasoned bread crumbs with a palmful of fresh grated parm cheese. Place them on a cookie sheet and place it in the freezer.Once they are frozen put them in a freezer bag. When you are ready to eat it just pull them out and fry them in a little olive oil or canola oil. You can use this for eggplant parm or on a sammie. My family calls them “eggplant chips” and the kids love to dip them in ranch.
Nicole @ Being Frugal Is Fabulous says
Made these tonight and they were delish! The kids even liked even though they don’t really like zucchini or eggplant. I made my own artisan bread, which helped lower the cost even more. I used this recipe for the bread, it is the best: http://karaskitchencreations.blogspot.com/search?q=artisan+bread
Kristin says
I made these last night for dinner along with the Artisan Bread in the comment above and the entire thing was to die for. The Rosemary-Garlic sauce just with the bread alone was UNBELIVEABLE. The bread, Panini and sauce recipe’s have made it into my “keeper” recipe binder. Thank you!
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
@Kristin,
Yeah! So glad you enjoyed it Kristin!!! I LOVE that aioli sauce…great for bread, or dipping veggies!