I’m on a panini kick. I’m not so sure that my husband is too fond of this. He would rather not have a sandwich for dinner. He would never complain, but I can tell. He loved the Cuban panini, but I don’t think I have him converted yet. I found some delicious looking herb foccacia that Autumn posted on Good Eats Girl, but mine did not turn out. I’m trying to bake more homemade breads, but it isn’t going so well. Mine was very flat and hard. I used store bought bread for the panini. But you should all go to her site and try the bread, because the flavor was great, I just can’t bake bread.
Pizza Panini
This is a really easy recipe. In fact, I’m not really sure it is a recipe so much as it is an idea. There are a lot of possible variations here. These were the players in our paninis. (I just looked up “panini” and found that actually “panino” is singular and “panini” is plural….but Wikipedia says Americans call more than one panini “paninis,” so I guess I’ll stick with that).
bread
mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
hard salami
pepperoni
ham (only a very, very little–I was finishing off what we had)
turkey
spinach
sauteed mushrooms
almost caramelized onions (I had to nurse my daughter and couldn’t give them any more time)
pizza sauce
Directions: Assemble sandwich, spray the outside of both slices of bread with non-stick spray (again, use butter if you’re feeling crazy), and grill. I pressed mine down a little. Not too hard though–this was one hefty sandwich and I didn’t want to lose all the mushrooms.
The pictures are of my husband’s sandwich. Mine had slightly less meat on it. You could use whatever meat you like. I’d say that you would want to include pepperoni to make it really taste like pizza, but you wouldn’t have to. You could put on chicken, roast beef, whatever! You could also throw on some peppers (roasted red peppers would be great), some extra spinach and mushrooms and make it a vegetarian sandwich. It would be great that way too.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think this panini looks great! Even if your husband is not fond of sandwiches for dinner how could he not love this?
Turning that foccacia into croutons is genius! This panini looks amazing….you must tell me…what kind of panini press do you have?!
Autumn–I just have the tiniest George Foreman Grill (http://www.amazon.com/George-Foreman-GR10AWHT-Champ-Grill/dp/B00004R93Z) so I can only do one panini at a time. I'd love to get the Griddler (http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-GR-4-Griddler-Stainless-Steel-Griddle/dp/B0001XASWQ). My mom has it–plates are dishwasher safe!
hehe i hope your attempt at croutons is more successful than mine just was
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Haha, oh no Beth! Your polenta looks delicious though–I'm sure I would have eaten it straight out of the bowl too!