Lunch this Week: Roasted Eggplant-Red Pepper-Caramelized Onion-Mozzarella-Sun Dried Tomato Spread Wraps

I know... what a mouthful. But I promise it's worth reading the entire title! Ten points to anyone who comes up with a shorter, better name.

The inspiration for this week's lunch comes from Ankara's Cafe, one of my favorite places in Boston. For those of you familiar with their gargantuan wraps, this one is on the smaller (and healthier) side but should be pretty similar! So despite living in DC, I can relive all of the joy of a wrap combining so many wonderful ingredients: roasted eggplant, roasted red pepper, caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella cheese, and sun-dried tomato spread.

Roasted Eggplant and Red Peppers
Roasting vegetables is a relatively fancy way of simply saying 'put them in the oven for a while.' So to start, I sliced up 1 good-sized eggplant and two red peppers. I cut them into strips that were about two inches long and half an inch wide. Then simply place them on a greased cookie sheet and cook at 400 for about 30-40 minutes. Check on them every 10-15 minutes and flip them over to brown evenly and avoid burning. Remember, as you roast the vegetables they will shrink a good amount. In the end, this amount will make 4-5 wraps, perfect for a week of lunches.

Caramelized Onions
While those are cooking it's time to caramelize the onions! These are one of my absolute favorites. Use them on sandwiches/wraps, as a pizza topping, and to add a sweet flavor to a pasta dish. Although you can technically caramelize with any onion (or even leeks) Vidalia onions are definitely the best for this. They are already naturally sweet so most of the cooking process is about bringing that out.

Slice up your onion. I used one in this recipe, but Vidalia onions are very large (about 4" in diameter.) If you are using regular onions you might want to use two. Do not worry about chopping them finely, since caramelized onions are generally kept in strings. Heat up some butter in a pan (about a teaspoon.) This is one of the very few times you will see me suggest butter rather than olive oil. In this case, it does help with the caramelizing process. Add the onions and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly to avoid sticking to the pan or burning. Once the onions have become nearly translucent, add some brown sugar. I tend to sprinkle it in with my hands. For one very large vidalia onion or two regular ones I would add about a tablespoon. Stir it in and continue sauteing. After another ten minutes repeat the process with the brown sugar. Continue cooking for roughly another ten minutes or until the onions are uniformly browned and thoroughly cooked through. Feel free to taste one as a test if you are unsure about the amount of brown sugar to use.

Sun-dried Tomato Paste

In my mind, sun-dried tomatoes are sadly underused and are a terrific addition to pretty much everything. While you could certainly use straight sundried tomatoes in this recipe, I decided to make a pesto paste with them to add some additional basil flavoring. A quick google search turned up this recipe.

I recommend it! Make sure to use sun-dried tomatoes that are NOT in oil to save on calories and fat. I also used closer to 3/4 cup of them to emphasize their taste in the spread.

This made about 1.5 cups for me, far more than needed for 4-5 wraps. Feel free to make less, or if you are feeling creative, use this as a sauce for some fish or chicken. I would recommend using it with a lighter white fish (tilapia, sole, halibut) or a snapper of some sort but it could probably work with anything. Simply spread it on some filets cooking in a pan or on the grill.

Now that you have all of your ingredients, put them together, add some slices of fresh mozzarella, and your wrap is good to go! I wrapped mine in saran wrap surrounded by foil so that I can warm it up at the office in the microwave, still in the plastic wrap, without it falling apart.