Panini Recipes : Ingredients : Roasted Red Peppers

Many excellent panini recipes include roasted red peppers. This how I make mine:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Coat the outside of the red peppers with olive oil and place on a flat baking sheet. Turn them every 10 minutes for about 50 minutes or until the outside of the peppers start to blacken. Take the peppers out and let cool in a closed container (a bowl with plastic wrap, paper bag etc.) for about 15 minutes. Peel the skin off the peppers and slice/tear into strips making sure to remove all the seeds. Do no wash the peppers after they are cooked, you will lose flavor.

Panini Recipes : Simple Meatball/Italian Sausage Panini

I like making meatballs so when I make them I usually make a lot for leftovers.

Sliced Baguette
A few medium sized meatballs (or some Italian sausage)
Fresh or sliced Mozzarella
Marinara Sauce


Cover the insides of the baguette with marinara sauce and mozzarella.  Thinly slice and add
the meatballs or Italian sausage.  Grill until the cheese is melted and the meat is hot!

Panini Recipes : Chicken Pesto Panini

I have a secret love affair with pesto. Did I just say that out loud? Anyway you will find that I use pesto a lot on my paninis, as well as Tapenade (but we'll get to that later). This is a basic Chicken Pesto Panini Recipe.

Bread: (Italian, Baguette, Ciabatta, whatever)
Chicken (I prefer leftover whole roasted chicken, or maybe a Italian Herb rotisserie chicken from the market)
Basil pesto (pre-made or homemade)
Fresh mozzarella cheese (or slices, either way)

Halve the bread and spread the pesto on the inside of each half. Place the cheese on each half and the meat in the middle. Grill it up and eat. You could warm up some marinara sauce and use it for dipping. YUM!

Panini Recipes : The Simple Cuban

The Cuban sandwich is what originally got me interested in sandwich presses and panini recipes. There are many schools of thought about what makes a traditional Cuban, however that is outside the scope of this website. Here is my simple Cuban recipe.

Ciabatta bread roll (or real Cuban bread if you can find it)
Yellow mustard
Ham
Seasoned Pork
Thinly sliced dill pickle planks
Swiss cheese

Lightly brush the outside of the ciabatta roll with olive oil. Put mustard on each side of the ciabatta roll. Cover both sides with a layer of swiss cheese. Put the pickles first then the meat on the bottom roll. Put the two sides together and grill the sandwich until the cheese is melted and the meat is hot.

Panini Recipes : Why?

I love paninis. I love making them, I love eating them and I love testing out new panini recipes on my friends and family. This is going to be a forum for people to try my panini recipes and hopefully let me try theirs.