Garlic Sausage Bread

I'll come right out and say that this is by no means a dietetic dish, but my husband loves it and when I can't eat bread, I still enjoy eating the topping. I use asiago cheese bread from the bakery department at Wal-Mart, but you can use plain Italian bread or any crusty, rustic bread. You can also put the toppings on top of fresh zucchini or yellow squash, cut lengthwise into thick slices.

1/2 pound Italian style turkey sausage (or ground turkey)
1/2 loaf crusty bread, cut in half lengthwise and with some of the soft middle pulled out (I give the middle stuff to our dogs, who think it's manna from heaven), leaving about 1/2-1" of bread in a border next to the crust
1/2 large tomato, roughly chopped
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons green olives, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons black olives, roughly chopped
4 ounces shredded mozarella cheese
1/8 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
1 tablespoon minced onion or scallion
2 teaspoons minced garlic

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Cook the crumbled sausage in a skillet over medium-low heat until browned. Drain. Combine the drained meat with the tomato, red pepper and olives.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray the foil with cooking spray. Place the bread halves on the baking sheet, crust side down. Pile the meat & veggy mixture onto the bread and top with the mozzarella. Bake for 10 minutes.

While the bread is baking, whisk together the oil, vinegar, onion, garlic and seasoning. Drizzle this mixture over the bread halves and bake them another 5 minutes. Cut into 2" slices and serve.

4 servings