It's summer... and you know what that means. It means we have bruschetta. And bruschetta ingredients + summer = panini.
So this version of "bruschetta" will be in the form of a sandwich. To do so we need a panini pan, bread, basil pesto, tomato and mozzarella cheese.
I started off by heating up the panini pan and then buttering the bread.
And for the pesto? In my opinion, the best basil pesto comes in a jar from Trader Joe's. I would prefer to only use this pesto for the rest of my life. 'Nuf said... So I went ahead and slathered a good deal of basil pesto on the inside of one of the slices of bread...
Then I sliced the mozzarella and tomato into a few pieces...
And I started layering the sandwich together right on the hot panini pan...
Buttered side of bread face down
Cheese slices
Tomato slices
Last slice of bread, slathered with pesto (buttered side up)
My panini pan is the kind that has a cast iron lid that you place on top of the sandwich.
I placed the lid on top of the sandwich and pressed down... after a few minutes I turned the sandwich 90 degrees and let it continue to cook. Turning it will create that cross hatch mark on the bread that looks so yummy!
After a few minutes I turned the sandwich over and let it cook on the other side too. (Note - some electric panini pans conduct heat on both sides. In this case you wouldn't have to turn the sandwich over.)
When the sandwich is done cooking I remove it to a cutting board and let it rest for a minute or two... just to let the cheese cool down a bit.
And I'll tell you right now, the waiting is truly the hardest part...
This sandwich was served up with the rest of the tomato and some tomato basil soup... life is good!!!
enjoy your time in the kitchen...
