These sandwiches can be eaten whole, or cut up into smaller slices to serve as appetizers when you have a group of people gathered together for a BBQ or family gathering.
The recipe below makes about 16-20 appetizer-sized portions, cut from 4 large sandwiches.
The Fresh Basil & Pine Nut Pesto is worth making on its own. You may never buy pesto from the store again.
Baby Garlic Toast Sandwiches w Pesto, Apples, Arugula, & Smoked Sausage
These sandwiches can be eaten whole, or cut up into smaller slices to serve as appetizers when you have a group of people gathered together for a BBQ or family gathering. The recipe below makes about 16-20 appetizer-sized portions, cut from 4 large sandwiches. The Fresh Basil & Pine Nut Pesto is worth making on its own. You may never buy pesto from the store again.
Ingredients
For the Fresh Basil & Pine Nut Pesto:
- 2.5 cups of fresh, clean basil leaves, stems removed
- ¼ cup pine nuts, half of them toasted, leave the other half untoasted
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of ¼ lemon
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2/3 cups extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ - ¾ cups freshly-grated parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
For the Apple Cider Vinaigrette:
- ¼ red onion, small dice
- ½ Honeycrisp Apple, small dice
- 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 Tbsp honey
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the Remaining Sandwich Components:
- 6 nice-quality smoked pork or smoked chicken sausages
- 8 slices sourdough bread, from country-style sourdough loaf
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 2 cups fresh Arugula, washed and dried on paper towels
- 1.5 Honeycrisp apples, washed, sliced thinly during sandwich assembly
Instructions
For the Pesto:
- Use a mortar and pestle or food processor to blend the basil leaves and pine nuts with the lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic cloves, and a few Tbsp of the olive oil.
- Drizzle the remaining olive oil into the food processor as it is blending.
- When the mixture is blended together, add the parmesan cheese and mix until fully incorporated.
- *Add a bit more olive oil if you prefer a looser consistency.
- Taste and season with kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper.
- Set aside for sandwich assembly later.
For the Apple Cider Vinaigrette:
- Combine the Vinaigrette ingredients in a bowl and mix to incorporate everything.
- Set vinaigrette aside for later.
For the Remaining Sandwich Components:
- Grill the smoked sausages or cook them in a pan with some oil on medium-low heat.
- When the sausages are cooked, cut them into ¼” thick coins and set aside for sandwich assembly.
- Lightly toast the sourdough bread in the oven until the slices are just beginning to take on color, but before the bread is golden brown.
- Remove the sliced bread from the oven, and rub the outsides of the bread with the raw garlic cloves.
- Drizzle the bread with olive oil and return to sheet tray in the oven to finish turning golden.
- Remove bread from oven and lightly sprinkle with kosher salt.
- Spread a layer of the garlic pesto on one side of each slice of bread.
- Dress the arugula greens and sausage pieces in the apple cider vinaigrette.
- Add arugula greens and sausage slides to the bottom piece of sandwich bread, on top of the pesto.
- Thinly cut the remaining Honeycrisp apples into thin slices.
- Layer the slices on top of the arugula and smoked sausage.
- Add the top piece of bread to complete sandwich construction.
- Cut each sandwich into 4-5 sandwich “strips”.
- Arrange sandwich strips on a platter and serve immediately.
Notes
Save any extra pesto with some pasta the next day. You can also freeze pesto for up to 3 months and it maintains a wonderful fresh flavor.