Tuscany Bread - a husband favorite...I think...

So, my mom has been in town since Christmas Day and unfortunately for our waistlines, her trip has revolved almost entirely around eating at delicious Madison restaurants followed by napping on my comfy couch. Needless to say, my husband and I are FULL. Dinner tonight, after dropping my mom off at the airport, needed to be something light, small and easy. Enter Tuscany Bread.

This recipe is our version of Pizzeria Uno's Tuscany Bread appetizer...My husband actually introduced this appetizer to me at Pizzeria Uno's long ago when we first started dating. We've been replicating the recipe for years.

Ingredients:

• 1 small French baguette
  
• Fresh pesto
  
• A couple handfuls of fresh spinach leaves
  
• 4 - 8 Meunster cheese slices - just enough to cover the baguettes
  
• 1 small tomato, diced
  
• A few lemon wedges
  

Directions:

1. If your baguette isn't crusty already, brown in a 375 degree oven for 5-8 minutes or until the outside is crusty. I've found that even if your bread is crusty already, that warming it up in the oven makes the pesto soak right into the bread, and speeds up the wilting of the spinach leaves (rather than leaving it up to the broiler to do all the work).
   
2. Halve the baguette lengthwise and spread pesto on the cut sides. Add as much or as little pesto as you like
   
3. Top bread with spinach leaves, a few tomatoes, then the cheese. Sprinkle a few more tomatoes on top of the cheese. As a side note, I often only need a few handfuls of spinach leaves so I just buy spinach from the salad bar rather than buying a huge bag.
   
4. Place bread under a broiler on the high setting until cheese is melted and starting to brown.
   
5. Remove from oven and cut into pieces, serve with lemon wedges.