8 Quick Gourmet Panini Recipes

Panini

What is a panini you may ask. Well it is really just a grilled sandwich, but it can become much more if you put some thought into its ingredients. The limits are only the ones which you impose on yourself. Try a goat cheese with sliced fruit panini for a midday snack. There is no end to the possibilities! Now for just for a few basics for making a panini.
Ideally I would suggest that you purchase a panini grill or panini press as it will make your life easier if you plan to make paninis more than just a few times. Frying them on a skillet works but can become a bit messy when trying to flip them over and the cooking time will be a bit longer.

When selecting a panini grill try to find one where you can regulate the heat and the pressure on the sandwich. Also look for one that will allow you to take off the grates so clean up will go smoothly.

Panini Grill  at Amazon

Try to use a bread like ciabatta, a French baguette or thick crusty Italian bread cut down the middle. The idea is to have just enough bread so that your ingredients don't squirt out or that your bread is so thick that you only notice the bread. Then brush on a bit of olive oil on the outside of the bread before you grill it, add your sandwich ingredients and grill away!

Here are a few of our favorite paninis try them if you like or start creating paninis with your own ideas.

Set Your Grill at 375 degrees and just enough pressure to compact the slices of bread. For the following combinations feel free to use any type of bread you like.

1) Roasted Ham, Sonoma Dry Jack Cheese spicy mustard

2) Serrano Ham, Idiazabal cheese, and sun dried tomato pesto

3) Madrange French Ham, organic Morbier cheese, and Dijon mustard

4) Herbed Salami, Ossau Iraty cheese and basil pesto

5) Soppressata, Pecorino Tuscano cheese, and roasted red pepper pesto

6) Finocchiona, Taleggio cheese and cilantro chutney

7) Herbed Salami, Pecorino Tuscano cheese, and sun dried tomato pesto

8) Mozzarella, tomato, avocado, romaine lettuce and roasted red pepper pesto