Sandwich Week- Day Five- Italian Eggplant Grilled Cheese

In college, one of the most exciting days at our dining hall was grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch day. There's something about a hot, overly buttery, thickly sliced white bread sandwich filled gooey processed American cheese. A perfect compliment for piping hot tomato soup.

I make a lot of grilled cheeses at my house (no, I do not have any children). American cheese to go along with tomato soup. Pimento cheese BLTs. Roasted beets with pepper jack. And so many more. It's just something about that hot cheese goo-ing out during each bite. You can probably make just about anything into a grilled cheese.

Like earlier this week when I made this Italian Eggplant Grilled Cheese: eggplant, spinach, tomato and mozzarella cheese. Please forgive (or enjoy, depending on your taste) this eggplant kick I've been on lately. I can't help it when a beautiful eggplant is only a dollar at the farmer's market! If you wanted to adapt this sandwich for your meat-loving, eggplant-hating friends, just substitute in some Italian meat like prosciutto or pancetta or salami. Or I certainly won't judge you if you go for both eggplant and Italian meat ;)

Italian Eggplant Grilled Cheese
Ingredients:
2 pieces of sandwich bread (I used whole wheat)
3 slices of eggplant about 1/4 in thickness
3-4 thin slices of tomato
small handful of fresh spinach leaves
fresh mozzarella cheese slice

Directions:
Preheat a George Forman grill or grill pan.

Grill the eggplant slices until cooked, about 3-4 minutes (flip over halfway if using a grill pan).

Assemble the sandwich by arranging the cheese on one of the pieces of bread, layering with spinach, tomato and the grilled eggplant. Top with the other piece of bread. Grill the sandwich until the cheese is melted, approximately 3-4 minutes (flipping over halfway if using a grill pan).