2 french bread baguettes (around 18 inches each)
10 ounces hard ricotta cheese cut in slices (can be substituted by soft ricotta)
6 ripe tomatoes, sliced
3 large eggplants, unpeeled and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups dried tomatoes, softened
flat lettuce leaves
1/2 cup simple tapenade (ingredients listed below):
30 seeded green olives
3 tbsp. capers (washed to reduce saltiness)
2 garlic cloves
10 basil leaves (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Begin by preparing a simple tapenade putting in a food processor the olives, capers, garlic, basil and enough olive oil to obtain a spreading paste thickness Clean the eggplants and cut in longitudinal slices as thin as possible (1/8" or less).

Cook or braise them over a flat plate or pan with only enough olive oil to avoid sticking to the plate, until the slices soften and the surfaces get a little browned. Take apart.

In the same pan, put the sliced tomatoes to cook until softened, adding a bit of salt. Be careful not to overcook them, or they will become too soft to handle. Assemble the baguettes already opened diagonally, by firstly spreading the tapenade into them, then placing a layer of ricotta cheese, the dried tomatoes, the eggplant slices, the tomato slices and the lettuce leaves.

Carefully close the baguettes and wrap them with plastic film. At the moment of serving, cut the baguettes diagonally in 2" pieces ant take out the plastic film.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Check the saltiness of all the ingredients because most of them have enough salt. In this case, a unsalted ricotta cheese should be preferred.

Submitted by: Luis De Santis