The Farmer's Market Sandwich

So there's a sandwich called the "Farmer's Market" that I'm obsessed with but at $8 bucks a pop thats almost $40 bucks/week (and yes, a week, as I'm one of those crazy people that can eat the same thing for days or months on end) So the other day during one my binges I looked down at my sandwich and had an epiphany: I could make this sandwich myself!

The sandwich is so simply its a little sad, just layer fresh mozzarella with arugula or some other baby greens, tomatoes and artichoke hearts between two slices of rustic bread drizzled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and that's it, "Farmer's Market" any day of the week. That's not even the best part...making the sandwich yourself costs around $3, netting you an $5 extra dollars/day which translates to $35 dollars/week or $140 dollars/month...so worth the extra prep time!

focaccia ie pizza without tomato sauce

Who knew that focaccia is essentially a sauce-less pizza...I sure didn't and if you didn't either, now you do :) So I recently acquired one of my new favorite cookbooks: Get Cooking by Mollie Katzen (available at Anthropologie) which has 150 easy recipes with detailed instructions and tips and suggestions for the newbie cook. One such recipe was an artichoke, tomato and goat cheese focaccia, the great thing about this recipe was that it was super simple and can be adapted to whatever you have in your kitchen and once you've made this you can make foccaccia forever so here's the basic recipe:
You're gonna need:
1 1lb bag of store bought pizza dough (I used Trader Joe's in the cold section, its a good choice and for around 2 bucks you can't beat it; you can also use frozen or you can buy a bag from you local pizzeria)
1 tbsp of cornmeal or all-purpose flour
6 large cherry tomatoes
1 6.5 oz can of marinated artichoke hearts (also available at Trader Joe's)
1 medium red onion
1/2 tsp dried rosemary (I used herbs de provence, its all I had and it worked great, all purpose seasoning or poultry seasoning would be fine too)
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
salt and pepper

To make foccacia:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 450
2.Sprinkle the all-purpose flour or cornmeal in a thin layer over a baking tray and place the ball of dough on top; get some flour on your hands so things don't get sticky and spread/stretch out the dough to approx. 9in x 13in rectangle
3.Let the dough rest for about 30 min
4.In the mean time prepare your veggies: slice the red onions into thin slices, cut the tomatoes into bite-size pieces and drain/chop up the artichokes (with this step, feel free to substitute any veggies you have, roasted red bell peppers, mushrooms or asparagus would be great too)
5.Once the dough has puffed up a bit, sprinkle with rosemary (or any other herb you have) and arrange the veggies on top. Scatter the goat cheese evenly on top and season with a couple pinches of salt
6.Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and the cheese is turning brown around the edges. Allow to cool
7.Sprinkle some fresh pepper before serving; it goes great with a salad or soup for lunch or alongside pasta for dinner

I've always been intimidated by making pizza/focaccia at home because I always thought you needed a pizza stone or a fancy oven but now I know that you don't and that pizza night can now be any night.