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Sandwich · Lunch · Dinner · Sausage · Eggplant · Fennel

Sausage & Harissa Eggplant Sandwich with Apple-Fennel Yogurt Sauce

Several components, but none of them are hard, and the onions and eggplant mostly look after themselves while you make the sauce. The yogurt sauce is what ties it all together, so keep the extra close at the table.

Prep
30 min
Cook
1 hr
Total
1 hr 30 min
Serves
3
1×
Equipment
mandoline · small pot with a lid · sheet pan · small cast-iron skillet · food processor or personal blender
Oven
400°F roast
Open-faced sandwich on a grey ceramic plate, toasted sourdough piled with roasted eggplant and baby greens and drizzled with pale yogurt sauce

Instructions

Caramelize the onions

  1. Slice. Thinly slice the onions on a mandoline and add them to a small pot with the butter over medium-low heat. Cook until the butter melts and coats the onions.
  2. Soften. Put the lid on and cook for 15–20 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until the onions are well softened.
  3. Uncover. Take the lid off and keep cooking for 15 minutes, stirring often. If they start to brown and get dry, add a splash of water.
  4. Finish. Add the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, stir, and cook for another 15 minutes, until the onions are a rich, deep brown and have reduced.

Roast the eggplant

  1. Score. Heat the oven to 400°F on roast. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and drag a fork across each cut side to leave some grooves for the paste to catch in.

Four small purple-and-white striped fairy tale eggplants on a round wooden board, with a halved one showing its pale flesh

Halved fairy tale eggplants on parchment, cut sides scored with fork grooves

  1. Coat. Stir the harissa, honey, olive oil, paprika, salt, and pepper into a paste. Add the eggplant and the paste to a bowl and shake or stir vigorously to coat well.
  2. Roast. Spread the eggplant on a sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes.
  3. Flatten. Take them out and press each half flatter with the bottom of a measuring cup or a baking dish, especially the larger end. This helps them reduce and cook faster. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes; if they start to look dry or brown, pull them out.

Roasted eggplant halves on parchment, deeply browned and glossy with harissa paste

Make the yogurt sauce

  1. Toast the fennel seeds. Toast the fennel seeds in a small cast-iron skillet, or whatever skillet you already have going, low and slow until very aromatic with a little color. Set a pinch aside if you’re making the salad.

Toasted fennel seeds, golden with some darker edges, in a black skillet

  1. Blend. Add the yogurt, lemon juice, toasted fennel seeds, fennel fronds, black pepper, honey, mustard, and apple to a food processor or personal blender and blend until fairly smooth. Put it in the refrigerator to thicken up slightly while you finish everything else.

Sauce ingredients on a cutting board: fennel fronds, half a lemon, a cup of Greek yogurt, a small dish of fennel seeds, pepper, honey, and whole-grain mustard, and an apple

Cook the sausage

  1. Grill or roast. Grill or roast the sausages until they have some good color, then slice them into strips that will cover your bread.

Assemble

  1. Toast. Toast the sourdough.
  2. Layer. Add the sliced sausage to the toast, then layer on and spread the caramelized onions. Top with the eggplant, drizzle with some of the sauce, add a decent handful of greens, more sauce, and the top piece of bread.

Close-up of roasted eggplant halves layered over sausage and caramelized onions on sourdough, drizzled with yogurt sauce

  1. Serve. The sauce really helps balance everything and brighten the sandwich, so keep the extra close at the table and spoon more on as you eat.

Side salad (optional)

  1. Dress. Whisk together 2 parts olive oil to 1 part white balsamic vinegar with a healthy squirt of whole-grain mustard, the juice of the other half of the lemon, a pinch of the toasted fennel seeds, and salt and pepper.
  2. Toss. Toss fresh greens with the sliced apple, dried cherries, goat cheese, pecans, dried shallots, and finely chopped fennel, and dress.

Salad of greens, apple slices, dried cherries, crumbled goat cheese, pecans, crispy shallots, and fennel fronds