Italian Farmhouse Sandwiches (Tantré Farm: Week 3)

As soon as I saw "arugula" on the list of items I was to receive in my share this week the first thing I thought was "farmhouse sandwiches!" Italian Farmhouse Sandwiches are a long-time favorite in my family. Who can argue with open-face sandwiches redolent of garlic and piled high with fresh vegetables and savory meat? I don't even know where the original recipe came from. This is one of those things that is ridiculously easy, requires almost no preparation, and is so good. It's perfect for a hot summer night when you just don't want to turn on the stove or oven because you don't have to cook anything. All you need are a couple of serving platters, a toaster, and you're good to go.

It starts with bread. Big, crusty slices of bread, in this case, Zingerman's Rustic Italian. Big round loaves of white bread make the best foundation.

Other essential ingredients:

• whole garlic cloves
• olive oil
• fresh tomatoes, sliced
• fresh mozzarella, sliced (look for the big ball-shaped cheese packed in water)
  
• Genoa salami, hot or sweet capicola, sopressata
  
• fresh arugula leaves
• fresh basil, chiffonaded
  

Toast the bread slices, then take a garlic clove and rub it all over the hot bread. Drizzle some olive oil on it if you like. Then...stack! It doesn't matter how or what you put on it. Improvise. Be creative. There's no wrong way to put one of these together. There's something for everyone. I like to do one vegetable-centric and one meat-centric slice (and maybe one more if I'm really hungry...somehow that seems to happen a lot with these sandwiches). Of course the fresh arugula from Tantré was a featured ingredient and boy was it fantastic. I piled my sandwiches high with arugula. The basil was snipped from my herb garden not 15 minutes before we sat down to eat.

Ingredients: Demolished!