Roasted Eggplant, Tomato, Chicken, and Smoked Mozzarella Stack

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As I've said recently, Mr CC and I have been trying to be more mindful of what we buy that may sit in the fridge and turn to mush if not used in a timely manner, and to use up what we purchase before buying more. This has turned out to be very successful, in several ways: I get to stretch my mind a bit figuring out how to turn produce into dinner, we don't shop as much (which is a good thing as we have to get into a car every time we go shopping - rural living and all that), and the grocery bill has gone down a bit.

This open-face sandwich is a good example of using up what we had at hand: farmers market eggplant and tomatoes, local walnut bread, leftover chicken from a rotisserie dinner. The only thing I purchased to round out the recipe was the cheese. We paired it with a simple salad of mixed greens drizzled with a hearty vinaigrette and sighed in total satisfaction.

Roasted Eggplant, Tomato, Chicken, and Smoked Mozzarella Stack
Christine's original recipe
Ingredients:
6 slices good whole wheat walnut bread, I use our local Brio, which is my favorite
Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard
1/2 pound (about) smoked mozzarella cheese, sliced (I used Rumiano)
3 small to medium eggplants, sliced lengthwise, 1/2" thick, roasted
3 medium organically grown, ripe, red tomatoes, sliced crosswise (heirlooms would be great)
thinly sliced chicken breast from a rotisseried chicken
4-5 basil leaves, thinly sliced crosswise
walnut oil

Preparation:
Place the eggplant slices on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with olive oil. Spray more olive oil over the slices and sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt.
Roast in a 375 oven for about 15 minutes, flipping them over halfway in the baking. Set aside.
In the same oven, place the walnut bread slices directly on an oven rack and toast for about 5 minutes.
Have your assembly ingredients ready on a work surface.
Beginning with the toasted bread on the bottom (duh), spread each slice with mustard, add a slice of the cheese, a slice of eggplant, more cheese, several slices of tomato followed by a few slices of chicken, more cheese, a bit of the basil, then top it all off with a drizzle of roasted walnut oil.

Assemble the rest of the sandwiches and place them on a baking sheet.

Place in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheese melts deliciously over and through the sandwich.

Eat with a knife and fork, or serve with lots of napkins and use your fingers. It's finger-licking good no matter how you eat it.

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