Spanish baguette melts

Beautiful day today. I bet cooking hasn’t even crossed your mind, has it? And if it has, you’re probably thinking about dusting off the barbecue. I don’t own a barbecue. What I do have is an inborn talent for eating bread with absolutely everything. Unfortunately. It shows.

It wasn’t today but yesterday that I made myself these “Spanish baguette melts”. Why Spanish? That’s just what came to mind. They started out as pizza without the dough, or pizza on a roll, but in the end I decided they were more of a baguette melt. Spanish because everything’s chopped up small (made me think of tapas somehow), plus there’s chorizo and jalapeño (and everybody knows Mexico is just a stone’s throw from Spain).

It pains me to admit they were damn good. Which, when you add it all up, isn’t such a good thing, but I’ll go for a slightly longer bike ride today and maybe it’ll balance out. Though I doubt it.

These melts would easily take the place of pizza at a house party, especially the kind you order from some dreadful chain. I promise. Make them and watch how fast they disappear. Highly recommended!

I’m off for that ride.

At a glance: 

Prep time: 6 minutes

Baking time: 6–7 minutes (until the mozzarella is nicely browned)

Oven temperature: 200 degrees Celsius

Serves: these ingredients make two 25 cm melts, but use more bread and make enough for the whole party

Calories: hmm, I’ve started cycling again, so definitely fewer

Ingredients for what I reckon are Spanish-style baguette melts:

• a baguette (preferably a couple of days old, just not a supermarket one – after two days all that’s good for is hammering in nails)
• 1 shallot
• 1/3 of a red pepper
• a few pickled jalapeños
• half a thin chorizo-style sausage (mine was called a Spanish kabanos; the main thing is that it’s thin)
• a piece of mozzarella (the kind packed in water)
• olive oil
• ground paprika
• herbes de Provence
• ground black pepper

Recipe for el loco loco:

I split the baguette in half lengthways. I rubbed olive oil over the cut sides (about a tablespoon per half) and sprinkled them with ground pepper and herbes de Provence. I chopped all the vegetables and the sausage fairly small (especially the shallot, as you can see in the photos below) and spread them over the baguette.

I cut the mozzarella into long, narrow strips and laid them right down the middle of the vegetables (see the photos). I sprinkled ground paprika on top (sweet or hot, whichever you prefer).

I put the baguettes in an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for about 6–7 minutes. You want the mozzarella and the edges of the bread to brown nicely. All done. Enjoy!