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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.