Veggie Panini

I’ve had a lot of delicious veggie panini sandwiches at various restaurants, but they are the best made at home, with the freshest, highest quality ingredients and with ingredients that you like in the proportion that you like them.  I make these in a cast iron pan with a panini press (looks like an antique iron) with a small handle on it.  Of course, you could make it in a panini maker/grill.

At the farmer’s market today, one of the many things that I bought was a fresh loaf of honey oat bread.  I like to keep my sandwich simple, with the exception of the cheese, in this case...

Angie, Angie, Angie...she works in the cheese department at Lunds in Uptown.  You will not find a person more knowledgeable.  You can describe a cheese that you’ve had with very little detail, and she will be able to ID it.  Then, you will sample it.  Then, you will buy it!  Funny how that works.  She also really enjoys the story of the cheese.  This recipe uses a cheese, that resembles subtle sauteed or grilled onions.  You can use any kind of cheese, including cream cheese, or a balsamic vinegrette, if you prefer.  

Ingredients:

• 2 slices fresh bread (cottage cheese dill is one of my favs.)
• 1 tbsp. soft butter.
• Sauteed veggies, such as onion, eggplant, zucchini, tomato, and kale.  Don’t saute the tomato in summer.  It’ll cook too much.
• Fresh herbs (mostly basil).
• Thin slice of cheese.   I used Wensleydale with Carmelized Onion Cheese.

Process:

1. Heat cast iron pan.
2. Cook veggies, as desired.
3. Butter the outside of the slices of bread (to grill).  This is really not necessary with the cast iron pan.
4. Start to place veggies on top with the fresh herbs in the middle (away from the heat).
5. Place the other slice of bread on top.
6. Hold in place with panini press, if you have one.
7. By the time you have it built, the sandwich will probably be ready to flp.  You don’t want to burn the bread.
8. Slice in half.  Serve with a pickle or sliced cucumber and tomato.

If you have the veggies grilled and kept in the frig., this is super easy to make after work.  Sometimes I freeze batches of veggies.  That makes it easy to put together, too.