Stretching the leftovers with Bruschetta

We love leftovers, especially for weeknight dinners.  Sometimes we're just too tired to cook after a long day at work.  To be honest, sometimes David is too tired to cook or I'm too hungry to wait for him to cook.  Yesterday, we had leftover penne pasta with caciocavallo, thai eggplant and cayenne peppers waiting in the fridge.  Unfortunately, the pasta is so good that we were a bit overzealous eating it the first night, so there wasn't quite enough left to fill both of us.   The quick solution:  bruschetta.  These are little open-faced grilled sandwiches, easy to make and very filling.

We had a bit of extra caciocavallo cheese from the night before, and of course there is always eggplant in the garden.  In just a few minutes, David turned these simple ingredients into amazing bruschetta.  They were so good, in fact, that the pasta was pushed to the side until every bruschetta crumb was gone.  What's not to love about bread grilled in olive oil topped with fabulous cheese and garden-fresh eggplant?

Bruschetta with Grilled Thai Eggplant and Caciocavallo
makes 4 Bruschetta


Ingredients

4      slices       ciabatta, sourdough, or similar bread
1/4   lb             Thai long green eggplant, sliced thinly
2      oz            caciocavallo (or whatever is leftover)
                       olive oil
                       red pepper flakes or 1 dried cayenne pepper

Procedure

1. Heat olive oil over medium high and grill eggplant slices until golden brown on both sides.  remove and drain on paper towels.
2. Cube half the cheese, and grate the other half
   
3. In same pan (add more olive oil if necessary), grill bread slices until golden and toasted on both sides.
4. Place cubed cheese on bread while it's still in the pan so the cheese will melt.  Remove from pan, then top with eggplant slices and grated cheese.  Sprinkle lightly with red pepper flakes or crumbled dry cayenne pepper.
5. Try to be nice and share the bruschetta with your spouse