This was one of my favorite sandwiches from a bakery/cafe I used to work at. It's a simple sandwich with very few ingredients but it can be a little tricky to get the balance right so I'll try to explain it as well as I can. What's difficult about it is that every bite needs to have feta, spinach and tomato in it or it won't taste good. These three ingredients together play off beautifully and create a really nice experience but if one is left out you'll be in trouble!
Warning: You need a panini press for this recipe. You can simulate this effect by putting the sandwich on a hot pan, putting something heavy on it and then turning it over after a few minute to cook the other side.
I made two sandwiches here but I'll just give a recipe for one sandwich and you can double or triple it (and so on) as you like. Oh! I made this on a multrigrain bread but it tastes great on a crusty baguette as well.
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
1 handful of baby spinach (see picture below)
Butter/oil or Earth Balance to spread on bread.
2 slices multigrain/baguette
2 packed tablespoons sun dried tomatoes sliced thinly (you can buy these in big jars at Cosco and they last forever)
1.5 tsp olive oil to fry spinach
Enough sliced or crumbled feta to cover your sandwich (see picture below)
The first thing you'll want to do is prep your garlic, tomato and feta.
This is how much spinach you'll need for a single sandwich:
Saute the garlic and olive oil over medium low heat, it should just be sizzling a bit, for about 30 seconds. You're just releasing the aroma and flavor into the oil before you throw the spinach in. Ok throw in the spinach and stir it and fold it over itself so it cooks as evenly as you can get it. Spinach burns if you look at it funny so you want to be VERY CAREFUL not to overcook it. The spinach will continue to cook once you remove it from the heat so you really only want it to wilt a bit before removing it from the heat.
This is how your spinach should look when it's done frying:
Seriously, that's it. Put in on a plate with a paper towel while you begin to assemble the sandwich. Butter one side of each bread slice and arrange one of them butter side down in front of you. Using a fork, lay the spinach on the unbuttered side of the bread in a thin, even layer. Don't overdo it or the bitter spinach will overpower the rest of the ingredients. See picture.
By the way, see how much more cooked it's gotten just from sitting around? OK now layer the sun dried tomato and cheese, again check out the pictures.
Put the second slice of bread on top, buttered side up and panini press that dude. It's done when the cheese is a bit melted.
I love this recipe. It's just a few ingredients but when combined the flavors just work soooo well together - the sweet tomatoes, the bitter spinach and the salty/sour cheese.
