The Pursuit of Tastiness

Tarted Beets

Recently I have been on a canning mission, and this got me to Larriland Farms to pick my own berries.  And what was directly between blueberry and raspberry bushes?  A strech of leafy beets.  I had never seen a beet growing, and would have imagined the beet well nestled underground, but actually when they are ready, they kind of have shimmied up a bit, so you can see the top quarter of the beet poking out of the ground.  So it's pretty easy to judge which ones will be a good size before you grab the leaves and yank. 

So when the lovely Laura was in town for lunch, I had beets and looked in the fridge to find a pre-made pie crust and half a hunk of feta.  Hmm, if I google these three things, what pops up? the Beet-Feta tart at Orangette of course :)

I must say, I was a bit hesitant, but this is good.  So good that I packed up most of leftovers from lunch to have the same night in picnic form.  These two slivers are all that remained when I remembered to photograph the delish dish, so don't blame the tart, blame the chef. 

By the way, I served this with a simple salad of spinach, blueberries and almonds with a lemon vinegrette and the colors of all this were beautiful together, and the taste too!

Tarted Beets, serves 6-8, adapted from Molly at Orangette

3 medium beets, roasted in 375 oven for an hour and then peeled

1 pie crust, make your own or pre-made, baked in a 9 inch pan (cover with foil and add dry beans or pie weights when you bake to prevent the crust from puffing up) for 15 minutes in 350 oven

2 eggs

4 oz feta

3/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon herbes de provence, crumbled (if you dont have this spice mix, thyme would be a good substitute)

pinch of salt

 slice beets about 1/4 inch wide and place on cooked pie crust, try not to overlap, but fill in as much of the bottom as you can.  In a medium bowl whisk egg, milk, crumbled cheese and spices.  Pour over beets and put in 350 oven for 40 minutes (or more, you want the filling to have set). Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes.  This can be served warm or cold, either is great.  Enjoy!

a tale of two scones

 I have a scone recipe that is my go-to for hostess gift, and one of my favorite flavor combinations, lemon and ginger scones.  I've been making these for at least 4 apartments (yep, that's how I tell time, can I picture chopping crystalized ginger in a certain kitchen).  But, I thought, despite its lovely flavor, it isn't super summery, and I have these cherries on hand . . . so I adapted my recipe to that of a cherry almond variety. (With both of these, the first word is a modifier for the main thing, ie this is a mainly ginger scone, with a bit of lemon in the background, and a mainly almond flavor with some cherries in there too.)

 I also switched it up by making mini-scones, little two bite bits that are a perfect afternoon snack with your iced tea.

basic scone dough, based on a recipe from the joy of baking

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

whisk above ingredients in a large bowl.  Add to it:

1 stick of COLD butter (1/2 cup) 

either shred this in like you would cheese, or cut it up in dice size and add to flour mix. Use 2 knives to cut the butter into flour mix until it comes together (may need to use your hand to squish it together in the end) and become a bit crumbly.  Add to it:

for lemon ginger: 1/2 cup chopped crystalized ginger (found in bulk at health food stores, or sometimes with dried fruits) and as much zest as you can get off one large lemon

for cherry almond: 1 Tbsp additional sugar, 1/3 cup chopped (and pitted) cherries, frozen is OK, 3 Tbsp slivered almonds, 1/8 tsp almond extract, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

mix in by hand until evenly distributed.  Add to it:

2/3 cup buttermilk

mix until just combined.  Place dough on floured work surface and shape:

For 8 full sized scones: pat out dough into 1 inch thick circle, use knife to cut through into 8 "slices" of scone and place onto parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 22 minutes and cool on wire rack, enjoy!

For 32 mini scones: pat dough to 3/4 inch thickness and use a 3 inch cookie cutter/cup to cut out circles (as you might with biscuits), cut circles into quarters.  Place circles on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 18 minutes and cool on wire rack, enjoy!

note, the scones bake up into circles, and you break along where the score lines are after cooled, but you must cut through the dough all the way to get enough of a break line after cooked.

second note, if using frozen cherries (or other fruit you might use), cut and put into dough direct from freezer, not thaw beforehand (so fruit retains its moisture), but lengthen cooking time by 2-3 minutes, as the frozen pieces cools the dough during cooking process.

Peppers - a photo glossary

A week or so ago, I made salsa with the farmer market's first tomatos of the season.  It was so fresh, and beautiful, and HOT!  I think I mistook a serrano pepper for a jalapeno.  Peppers are always just thrown in little baskets at the grocery store and the signs never seem to properly line up.  This drives me crazy, because I like to cook with new things, so I dont always know what things look like (fennel and celeraic come to mind here).  So although I am not yet ready to post the salsa recipe, let's take a look at peppers so you don't make the same mistake as I.

This is, generally, least hot to most hot:

from Miss Vickie

 Banana pepper

 

Poblano

 

Anaheim

Jalapeno 

 

Serrano

Fresno 

 

Cayenne

 

Scotch Bonnet

 

Habanero 

Spring Onion Biscuits

 I found these beautiful purple spring onions at the farmer's market and had to have them.  I thought I remembered Deb at Smitten Kitchen baking up something savory with spring onions recently and thought I would give it a try.  When I got home, and searched for this theoretical spring onion scone, I found I had melded Leek bread pudding, blue cheese & scallion drop biscuits and creamed chard with spring onions in my mind.  I could definitly have gone for the blue cheese biscuits, but didn't have blue cheese and really did not want to head out to the grocery store again. (Recently, when the whole family was at the grocery, a cashier called out (not our cashier, mind you) asking about our baby, as we were exiting the building.  My husband turned to me and asked, "How often do you come here?"  Apparently, too often.)  

I searched the web and found most of the recipes for onion biscuits seemed to have entirely too much butter and cream, or far too little to taste very good.  But I did find a rather easy base recipe for biscuits here at Thibeault's Table, and from this I adapted my recipe below.

Spring Onion Biscuits, made ~10

6 spring onions, cleaned and finely chopped (green/white and light green parts)

1 tsp olive oil

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), cold

1 cup buttermilk

 Preheat oven to 450F.  Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat.  When oil is hot, add chopped onions and cook, stirring occationally for about 5 minutes until just starting to soften.  Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder and soda, and salt.  Now (and this is the genius part) take out your large-holed cheese grater and grate the butter into the flour mixture.  This makes it very easy to use combine the butter into the dough.  Use 2 knives to "cut" the dough until crumbly.  Stir in buttermilk and use fork to combine.  Add onions and mix by fork then use your hands to combine by folding once or twice (don't get carried away with this, too much handling makes the dough tough).  

Pat the dough out on a floured cutting board to 1/2" thick.  Use a cookie cutter or upturned glass to cut out biscuits.  Place biscuits on parchment-lined cookie sheet and cook for 12-15 minutes.  Serve warm or sliced the next day with some ham, turkey or cream cheese and tomato.  Enjoy!

a note: Thibeault recommends denting the middle of the biscuits before they go in the oven with your finger to help the biscuits rise.  I doubted this genious hint and only did it on a few, but those few did indeed rise about 40% more!

'burbian Balthazar Salad

 I think I've walked by Balthazar in Soho about 400 times.  I know, it seems like a big number, but how many times have I eaten there?  Well, it's a much smaller number, 0.  Oh, I think once I popped in the little bakery section, placed off to the side like a modest relative, and got a coffee and maybe even an almond croissant if they had one.  But never have I had the famed Balthazar Salad. 

But I have read Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life.  Its a great book, part memoir, part recipes. If you don't read her blog, then let me tell you a wee bit about her, she met her husband via her blog.  How awesome is that?  Anyway, it was a cross country romance and one of the things he brought to the the table (literally) is this salad.  

I thought this would be a rather hearty and crunchy and flavorful salad for a small dinner party, and really thought the white truffle oil in the dressing would be the hardest thing to find.  I was wrong. I know there is a season for lettuces, but I was surprised that I couldn't find radicchio to save my life. (tried Giant, Whole Foods, Farmer's market and Co-op).  Even frisee was scarse.  I finally found it in a plastic container at whole foods, but it was looking a little past it's prime.  In the end, I just went with a bag of mixed spring greens. It sort of drives me bonkers that I have to buy the prepackaged stuff, but what can a gal do when more than 2/3 of the lettuces section at the grocery is bagged salad?

This was my first time tasting something with truffle oil.  I've read that it has an "earthy" flavor, and that really is the best way to describe it.  Not bitter exactly, but near that shade of flavor . . .I suppose it might be a good example of umami.  (I did find that if you want to white truffle oil, Whole foods is about 40% less expensive than Giant, but if you need black truffle oil for something, World Market has it for only$10!)

'burbian Balthazar Salad, serves 6 

dressing:

 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

6 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp white truffle oil

In a jar with screwtop lid, add first three ingredients.  Slowly whisk in the oils.  Screw lid on top and then shake shake shake, until throuroughly emulsified.  Refridgerate until needed (lasts about 1 week)

for salad:

~8 asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces

~3/4 cup green beans, trimmed

1/2 lemon (for peel purposes)

1 fennel bulb, sliced as thinly as possible

~6 radishes, sliced as thinly as possible

1 big bag spring mix

roughly 2 fingers size piece of ricotta salata, cut in matchstick sized pieces

1 small beet, washed, peeled and sliced into matchstick sized slivers

 Cut the peel off lemon and slice in thin strips of zest (do not grate), set aside.  Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring to boil.  Add a pinch of salt and add the asparagus, cook 3-4 minutes.  While asparagus is cooking, fill a medium bowl wiht ice and cold water.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer asparagus to ice bath.  Add green beans to the boiling water and cook about 3-4 minutes.  Transfer to ice bath.    Add the lemon zest to the boiling water and cook 1 minute.  Remove to cutting board and dry then finely mince, set aside.

DrTake beans and asparagus out of ice bath and dry well, place in large salad bowl.  Add greens then toss to mix.  Add salad dressing to taste and toss again until evenly coated.  Add fennel, radishes and toss again.  Top with beets and ricotta, then sprinkle on the minced lemon peel.  Serve and enjoy!

Sunday's Strawberry Salad

 Saturday I was whisked away to Franklin's for a Mother's Day Eve dinner.  I chose the cosmo and Samantha's Strawberry Salad.  This salad was the nightly special.  A combo of strawberries, pecans, bacon, blue cheese on a mix of lettuces with a buttermilk dressing.  Yeah.  It pretty much rocked.  It rocked so much that I wanted to attempt it the very next night, but maybe a bit lighter. Mainly because we had already noshed on bacon Sunday morning, and the idea of 3 meals in a row of bacon, sounded, well, less than healthy. Another reason to make it a bit lighter was the fact that I didn't have blue cheese in the fridge, and I am on a "make what you've got kick" (the downside of this is that last night we had tater tots and soy nuggets because they've been living in our freezer for several months now).  But back to the salad.  As luck would have it, we got our first farmer's market strawberries Sunday.  They were beauties too!  

I know I need a better name for this salad, and I will gladly accept offers.  I was going to call it Strawberry Salad, but then that reminded me of that weird strawberry jello and pretzel concoction. 

Sunday's Strawberry Salad, makes 2 medium sized salads

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp canola oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vineager

6 mint leaves, washed and thinly sliced

1/2  big head of romaine lettuce, washed and torn

8 strawberries, cleaned, hulled, sliced

12 pecans, toasted if you like

1 slice of red onion, diced

1 cubic inch of ricotta salata, minced (a bit of feta would be a wonderful substitution, or go with the blue cheese if you've got it)

Mix oils, vinegar and mint together with a whisk to combine.  Set aside.  Mix remaining ingredients in a salad bowl.  Pour on oil mixture, toss, serve, enjoy!

Hummingbird Cake

I've been meaning to post this for about a month now.  I made this cake for Easter, but it would be equally good as a Mother's day treat.  Or as the end to a southern themed meal (shrimp and grits anyone?).  Although really, any reason you come up with is equally fine.  Hummingbird cake is one of my favorite cakes to make because it is very striking and it's not chocolate cake.  Not that I have anything against chocolate cake, I mean, I had a slice from our diner across Broadway pretty much every week of our last few months in NYC. (It was good, the really fudgey kind of icing.)  But back to hummingbird cake.  It is a little bit out of the box (in a theoretical sense, not literally out of a box), and is sort of in the carrot cake family, only bananas, pecans and pineapple are used, not carrots. Traditionally the cream cheese frosting is decorated with pecan halves, but I dry out pineapple slices to look (sort-of, if you squint) like gerbera daisies to decorate, and these are great on top of a cupcake too!  To give credit, the dried pineapple is totally Martha's idea.  A heads up though, its at least 2 hours to dry, and more often then not, I end up leaving them in the oven, turning it off, overnight; so its definitly a do ahead kind of thing.  (An update on this, I have seen predried pineapple in the flower shape, not just chunks, in our co-op, but it's a bit duller in color than if you make it yourself.)

Hummingbird Cake

I've made both Martha's recipe and Joy of Baking's version.  I like the Joy one better, but there is very little difference (Martha's has coconut, a little more oil and vanilla).  One note though is that whenever mashed bananas are used, I always go by the number of bananas given, not the measured amount (Both these recipes list the same amount of bananas, but one says this should yeild 3 cups and the other 2 cups)

1 cup pecan halves, toasted (a wee bit, dont burn!) and finely chopped

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 large eggs, beaten

3/4 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 - 8oz can of crushed pineapple, undrained

3 large bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 F. Have you toasted your pecans yet?  Go ahead and do that while the oven is warming up (yes, use your oven's warming heat to toast the nuts.  We are living on the edge here people!) Grease two 9" round pans.  Set pans on parchment paper, trace pans, cut out circles and place in bottom of pans.  Grease those a wee bit too.  Set aside.

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, whisk together well.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients.  Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to just combined (lik you do a quick bread).  Pour batter evenly between the two pans, and place in oven.  Bake 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).  Let cool in pans 20 minutes then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling process.  While this is happening go whip up your frosting.

For the frosting: (I think this makes a lot of frosting, but I hesitate to tell you to half or 3/4 it, as I've been told I have a light hand with frosting)

1-8oz pack of cream cheese (don't use the no fat kind!  the 1/3 less, is OK if you must)

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1 box powdered sugar

Whip cream cheese and butter together with electric mixer.  Add vanilla and whip to combine.  SLOWLY add sugar, whipping throughout.

 For the pineapple flowers:

1 small pineapple.  yeilds, depending on thickness of slices, about 2-3 dozen

Preheat oven to 225F.  Cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple (so that it will stand up properly on the cutting board).  Remove the sides of the pineapple skin in about 2" strips, slicing from top to bottom.  Turn pineapple so it lies horizontally on board now.  Using your sharpest knife, slice as thin slices as you can.  Sometimes rotating the pineapple after each cut helps to prevent a slant to your cut.  Use kitchen shears to cut out (in a V shape) the pineapple's eyes from the slices. Place slices on parchment lined baking sheet, don't overlap.  Dab off with paper towel to get any stray juice (helps to dry them faster).  Bake for half an hour, flip to other side facing up, and bake another half hour.  If you've sliced paper thin, they will probably be done at this point, for the thicker ones, keep baking and flipping till they are dry enough.

*note, Martha suggests using a melon baller to take out the eyes, prior to the slicing, but mine is no where near sharp enough to take on pineapple, so if you've got a metal one, you can try that too

Putting it all together.  Place one of your cake discs on a serving plate.  If it is super rounded in the middle cut off top so it is flat (I've only had to do this once, usually they are relatively level by the time they've cooled).  Frost top of it.  Add second disc of cake.  Frost top and sides of cake.  Add pineapple flowers to top and or sides as you like.  Serve and enjoy!

Breads: the good, the meh, and the easy

I've been embracing the homemade bread movement.  I haven't pledged only to make homemade, or buy handmade.  But I do occationally make a batch of bread for our dinner or sandwiches or to share with others. Its surprisingly easy, especially if you are home anyway, as most of bread-making time is leaving the dough   in time-out off to the corner of your kitchen.  When you make good bread, it does taste a lot better than store-bought, but, to be honest, Pepperidge Farms still beats a "meh" homemade version.  

The first bread to review is a rye bread from the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, by way of Pete Bakes, click here for recipe.  This made a wonderful rye.  Really good.  It doesn't have the height of some other breads, but it wasn't dense either.  It was rye in flavor without being too powerful. I think the fact that we ate it all before taking a picture is a testimate to its tastiness.  This is a picture of mixing of the grains.  I often get asked where I find rye flour.  I got it from our local Co-op, where you dont have to be a member to buy.  They have a great bulk-food section, so I just buy what I will need.  (Studio living certainly doesn't provide storage for 4 different kinds of flour)  In the DC area, I think I've seen rye flour at Yes! organic market and Whole Foods too.  Definitly check out Pete's website and try this one!

 Emboldened by the deli rye, I decided to embark on a pumpernickle.  I saw a recipe for Black bread in the book, The Bread Bible, by Beth Hensberger.  I remember seeing a post on this on Smitten Kitchen, click here for the recipe, so despite it's semi-ridiculous number of ingredients, I decided to give it a try.  It smelled so good baking.  But, sadly, it was rather dry.  I mean, it was OK, especially with brie and ham and apple slices all piled on top, but it didn't have the "ohh, wow" factor of the rye.  I dont know if it has to do with a lack of steam in the oven.  Both the rye and the next one, a basic crusty white, used a pan of water below the baking bread in the oven and neither of those were dry, but it wasn't called for here.  It also wasn't as quite as dark as I would have liked either.  If you know a good recipe for pumpernickle, please send it my way, I definitly want to try this kind of bread again!

 Just yesturday I tried a very basic white bread.  I wanted something crusty and honestly, just googled crusty bread.  Of the over 1 million sites that came up, the second one was from the New York Times.  I figured this was a reliable source and went with this one.  It is also based on a recipe from Artisian Bread in 5 Minutes a Day; click here for the recipe.  This was SO easy.  I mean, all you do is stir stuff together.  No kneading.  seriously, NO kneading.  And good, very airy, with big pockets in the loaf, wonderful for sopping up any stray sauce on your dinner plate, or just with butter.

This makes a lot of bread.  The idea is to keep the dough in the fridge and bake a loaf as you want it. This seemed like a good idea, but I figured if I went ahead and just baked it all, I could wrap and freeze a left-over loaf or give a loaf away or have the makings of bread pudding or a strata for later in the week.  So I made the first 2 loaves in the oven, letting the second two rest out on the counter then baked the second two.  The second two were not nearly as fluffy.  Still very tasty, but not as great looking.  So I guess that's why you only make a loaf or two at a time, and refridgerate dough otherwise, it must have fallen during the extended resting time.  

One key note for all of these.  Use bread flour, not all-purpose flour when making bread.  It has a higher gluten count which allows for a better trapping of air, allowing it to rise more.

cucumber and radish salad

 A few weeks ago I made my first brisket, my aunt Mary Ann's peppered beef.  This was a big deal growing up. My mom would make it often when we had an open house, or something else that required a buffet rather than sit-down meal.  I remember the ceramic dish she used to marinate the beef with it's glass knobbed lid locking in all the goodness, sitting on the bottom shelf of our fridge, prime real estate, for a couple days before the day of the party.  People always loved it.  I loved it.  And she'd serve it with sliced dinner rolls, usually potato rolls, and this very intricate ceramic cylindrical dish filled with French's mustard.

I was hoping to write about the peppered beef recipe, but it turned out a little, well, peppery for my tastes, and a bit too dry as well, and just not like how I remember it.  So I will put it in the needs tweaking pile for now.  

But where this meat comes in to today's recipe is that we had about 1/2 pound of leftover beef.  And I thought a cole slaw might be a great side, a little creamy to counter both the spicyness and give a little moisture to the palate.  But we didn't have cabbage.  or brocolli.  But we had radishes. and a cucumber.  So what's a gal to do?  I plugged these two into the search feature of the Epicurious app (a wonderful tool if you have a phone with apps) and the Sweet Cucumber and Radish Salad recipe came up.  This was a perfect side dish for our leftovers (and not just because I didnt have to go to the store, but that is a big bonus!).  It was VERY easy to make and just a bit saucy, a great way to use leftover radishes too.

Cucumber and Radish Salad, adapted slightly, from Gourmet

1 cucumber

6 radishes

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Peel cucumber, slice in half lengthwise.  If you dislike seeds, go ahead and scoup them out at this time; I like them in there.  Thinly slice the cucumber crosswise and put in serving bowl.  

Chop off ends of radishes and discard.  Cut in half and thinly slice radishes, add to serving bowl.  

In a small microwavable bowl wisk the remaining ingredients together, add a dash of salt and pepper, and microwave for 30 seconds, remove and whisk to disolve sugar.  If not yet disolved, continue to zap for 30 second intervals and whisk between until sugar is disolved.  Pour the warm vinegrette over veggies.  Toss and then let sit for about 10 minutes and serve.  Enjoy!

Ratatuletta (when a muffuletta meets ratatouille)

  My father went to school down in Louisianna and would talk great tales about the wonder that is a muffuletta.  A true muffuletta is sort of like an Italian sub with an olive tapenade on a special round bread.  There are usually 4-5 types of sliced spicy meats and a few types of cheese. This is not it.  

Ratatouille is a french peasant food style stew of tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, garlic and what ever else you have on hand, really. (Its of a clean out the fridge bin kind of a dish).  This is not it.

These two are a bit of star-crossed lovers. Their families would definitly not approve of their absorbing the other's flavors.  But, the wonderful flavor of olives and salami with the freshness of roasted veggies all on an easily accessible Italian loaf bread is not in vain, it is not a tragedy in the least!

The other great thing about this sandwich is that it is great for a picnic, as it's made a whole day in advance (so you can spend the morning of said picnic tearing through your closet looking for your picnic blanket and basket that you know you have somewhere . . . maybe behind your punch bowl in the closet?)

I also kind of like this because its a bit of a sneak attack of veggies, perfect if you have a someone in your family who wrinkles his/her nose at the word "eggplant".  I mean there are at least 5 whole vegetables in a sandwich that serves 4 (that more per serving than that tomato sauce with the commercial where the kid gives everything to the dog. . . but I digress)

I think the hardest part of the sandwich is not spilling it on you when you eat it, so just make sure you pack napkins!

Ratatuletta, adapted from Muffuletta from Cooking Light, May 2004, serves 4

Part 1

1/4 cup Italian dressing (really any vinegrette is fine here, but maybe not the fruity kinds)

1 medium sized eggplant (the less round, the less seeds it will have!), sliced in 1/2 inch slices

1/2 Vidalia onion sliced in 1/4 inch thick slices

1 yellow squash, sliced in 1/8 inch slices

1 red bell pepper, sliced in 1/2 inch rounds

Part 2

1 cup chopped cherry tomatoes (about 14 of these golf-ball sized tomatoes)

8 pepperoncini peppers, chopped (if you dont feel like investing in a big bottle of these, check out your goccer's salad bar)

12 green olives with pimentos, sliced

1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 Tbsp pepperoncini juice (or olive juice if you dont have enough, but don't substitute water!)

dash of pepper

Part 3

1 loaf Italian bread, cut in the middle lengthwise (like you would a big sub roll)

8 slices provolone (thinly sliced)

12 slices salami (thinly sliced)

If you haven't yet sliced all the veggies in the first section, go ahead and do that.  Then put them all in a big bowl and pour dressing over and mix to cover.  In an ideal world, let this marinate for a couple hours before broiling them.  I've made this several times in various ways and I would say the 2 hours marinating makes a 5% difference, so if you've got the time, go ahead.  Next set oven to broil low (or just broil if you've got an old school oven, and put the rack a bit lower).  Pour veggies onto baking dish and broil for 5 minutes.  Remove and flip veggies, returning to broil 2-5 minutes.  You want the stuff to just get kissed with burn marks, not be totally charred, so watch carefully throughout this part, and remove from oven to cool a bit when done.

Mix all the ingredients from part 2 in a small bowl and set aside.

To assemble the sandwich you can remove some of the inner bread so that the final product isn't too tall or if you want to cut out a few calories.  Next, layer cheese on bottom piece of bread.  Add salami.  Add roasted veggies, trying to get a bit of each vegetable throughout.  Dollop on olive/tomato mixture on top of roasted veggies and finish with top of bread.  Wrap tightly with saran wrap and put in fridge for the better part of the day or 24 hours.  Unwrap, cut into 4ths, serve and enjoy!