Toasted Turkey Sandwich with Quick Cucumber Pickles

Do you have a chair?  An evening chair?  A chair that is your evening refuge, where you drink your glass of wine, watch some tv and work on your pile?  Pile? 

You know the stack of cooking magazines that arrive in a never ending onslaught from the post office.  While watching the ups and downs of the Real Housewives, I peruse and mark recipes to try.  Then after my stack gets big enough, I move those magazines on to the cookbook shelve, where they languish. 

But last month when the July/August issue of Everyday Food arrived, I marked a turkey sandwich recipe.  I left the magazine open on the arm of my chair, as a constant reminder that this recipe was going to be made.

And made, it was.  And excellent, it was.  

Followed the recipe exactly, except that I could find any store bought tapenade.  So, I made my own, which basically amounted to me tossing all the olives I had, some roasted red peppers, some pepperoncini peppers, capers, garlic, a little olive oil and salt and pepper in a food processor, with a little basil vinegar.  Better than store bought!!!

Toasted Turkey Sandwich with Quick Pickled Cucumbers

• 1 country-style loaf round bread, sliced in half horizontally, insides scooped out
• 1/2 cup tapenade
• 1/2 pound deli turkey, thinly sliced (I used some smoked turkey that I had in my freezer)
• 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 large tomato, thinly sliced
• 4 ounces provolone, thinly sliced
• 2 medium cucumbers, cut lengthwise into thin wedges
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350.  Spread the tapenade on the inside of both bread halves.  Arrange the turkey on the bottom half of the bread, top with zucchini, tomato and cheese.  Put the top half of the bread on the sandwich and wrap tightly in foil.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the cucumbers with the vinegar and sugar and season with salt and pepper.  Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Unwrap the sandwich, using a serrated knife cut into wedges and serve with the pickles.

Serves 4

 

This will be my entry for Souper Sundays (Soup, Salad, or Sammie) hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen.

****EDITED for a grammar error that I just couldn't live with!!!!