Dinner Tonight: Shrimp go swimmingly from salad to sandwich

Should you decide to forgo the bread in this shrimp salad sandwich, you'll be just as satisfied with this recipe as a main-course salad. I know this because I've become addicted to the salad since I first happened on the combination of sweet shrimp, spicy sausage and soft bitter greens about two months ago.

The sandwich idea came about recently, after my friend began to reminiscence about Provence and our first introduction to the delicious blend of artisan bread, tuna, hard-cooked eggs and olives bathed in olive oil known as pan bagnat during a visit to Nice and St. Tropez 20 years ago.

Two decades later, when I sampled my newly created beach sandwich during the first picnic of the year, I wore a jogging suit instead of a bikini while gazing out at Lake Michigan instead of the Mediterranean. But these were only details. The sandwich could only be described as "dazzling."

Tips: Buy cooked shrimp from the fishmonger instead of cooking your own. We found sliced Spanish chorizo sausages in the prepared food section of Whole Foods.

• SUMMER SHRIMP SALAD SANDWICHES

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: Five minutes

Yield: Six servings

Vinaigrette:

1⁄4 cup apple cider vinegar

1⁄2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1⁄2 teaspoon coarse salt

Freshly ground pepper

1⁄4 cup olive oil

Salad:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

3⁄4 cup large uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp, butterflied, halved lengthwise

1 piece (4 ounces) Spanish (smoked) chorizo, cut into thin slices

1 package (5 ounces) baby arugula

4 ounces pitted kalamata olives, halved

2 medium French bread loaves, about 10 to 12-inches long, or 1 long baguette, about 18-inches long

Procedure

1. For the vinaigrette, whisk together the vinegar and mustard in a small bowl; season with the salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in the olive oil slowly; set aside.

2. For the salad, heat the oil in a large skillet; add the garlic. Cook, stirring until garlic softens, about one minute. Stir in the shrimp; cook, stirring until the shrimp is pink and translucent, about two minutes. Stir in the chorizo; cook, stirring until warm, about one minute.

3. Toss together the arugula, olives, reserved shrimp and chorizo slices in a large bowl; add half of the vinaigrette. Toss, adding more vinaigrette as desired.

4. Halve the French loaves lengthwise without cutting all the way through; hollow out some of the soft bread to make room for the salad. Line the hollowed loaves with salad. Close; cut each loaf into three pieces.