Spinach-Stuffed Sesame Bread

14 February 2013.

Why make it from scratch when you can make it Semi-Homemade?
Spinach-Stuffed Sesame Bread.

I know that you're already imagining a Sandra Lee Situation, but I'm actually just referencing my super-easy, quick dinner prep, not bucket-sized cocktails. (But if that's your thing, I don't want to take that away from you.)
It was Valentine's Day, and I wanted to spend time with my wife, not in the kitchen. So when she came home from work with a huge sesame flatbread and a bunch of parsley, we decided to make it the star of the show.

I began by chopping two cloves of garlic and a small white onion. I sautéed them in a tablespoon of olive oil; I added one cup of mixed mushrooms and three cups of frozen spinach, along with two cups of the fresh parsley -- feel free to simply give it a rough chop, or to throw in the whole leaves, as I did. I added a pinch of salt, two teaspoons of capers, and a lot of freshly ground black pepper -- and with that, the filling was already finished.

tin has a habit of making fun of my complete inability to cut bread. She allowed me to keep my dignity on this particular evening by cutting the flatbread for me -- first into quarters, then each piece into an open pocket. She smeared the insides generously with margarine.

Once the filling had warmed through, my onions were shimmery and translucent, and the spinach completely thawed, we spooned the filling into the bread-pockets. We made sure that each pocket had a generous amount of filling (about 1/2"-3/4" thick).

Finally, our stuffed flatbreads went onto a baking sheet and into the oven at 450 degrees for about ten minutes, until the bread was browned and satisfyingly crispy.

Totally satisfying, yet remarkably easy to make, we couldn't get over the incredible sultry flavorful of the mushrooms, the "juiciness" of the spinach and the pleasant crunch of the bread. We brought the sesame flavor up a notch by finishing ours off with a drizzle of tahini sauce.

And since it was Valentine's Day, after all, we did pay our dues to Sandra Lee -- we found that these flavors were perfect in combination with a nice glass of red wine.