Roasted Asparagus Tomato Pesto Melt

This Roasted Asparagus Tomato Pesto Melt was something my dear friend Melissa always made for herself. It was different iterations: with turkey, without, different cheeses, sometimes mayo, sometimes not. But the three basics were always there: sourdough bread, cheese and tomato. This is a tasty Spring to Summer open faced sando that is perfect for the warmer months. I make it on the grill during the warmer months and always keep it vegetarian.

Today’s bread choice is from Boudin Bakery in Costa Mesa. I stopped in the other day to buy a couple of loaves of bread for this sandwich. I love their San Francisco style sourdough and always keep a couple of sliced loaves in the freezer. You can use a crusty country loaf for this or any type of sturdy bread will do.

How to make my Roasted Asparagus Tomato pesto melt

The best way to make this sandwich is by having a nice quality piece of bread and thickly sliced. Next is roasted asparagus , ripe tomato, meltable cheese, and basil pesto.

First we are going to roast the Asparagus. This is by far my favorite way of eating Asparagus and the most versatile. I have several recipes on my site that included Roasted Asparagus like my Mediterranean Pasta Salad or my Warm Quinoa with Roasted Asparagus and Peppers it’s the only way to go!

Let’s roast the Asparagus!

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While your Asparagus roasts, slice your ripe tomato into thick slices, two per slice is perfect. Once the Asparagus is roasted, remove from the oven and set aside.

I like to toast the bread before I add the pesto so it doesn’t get soggy. Once the bread is toasted, add a good amount of pesto on the bread, either store bought or homemade. Layer in about 5 spears of roasted Asparagus, then top with slices of tomato and top with cheese slices. For today, I used Cheddar Gruyere cheese I found at the store..it’s really sharp and so darn good! Any sharp cheese will work like Sharp Cheddar and Asiago that will melt. Once the sandwich is assembled you can place under the broiler until the cheese is melted or on the grill until everything is perfectly melted. Remove from the heat source and place on a plate and drizzle some extra pesto on top and some fresh ground pepper.

This Roasted Asparagus Tomato Pesto Melt is really filling. Typically a half is more than enough of a serving, especially when using larger sized bread slices.

Variations

If you are not a fan of Asparagus here are some perfect ideas to customize this melt:

• Substitute grilled zucchini for asparagus
• Instead of cheddar you can use mozzarella
• You can make a pesto mayo and add some smoked turkey or ham
• You can add roasted peppers.
• Use roasted or grilled eggplant
• Any type of pesto will work
• Any crusty thick sliced bread will work

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