Now that we’re all tapped out from our holiday shopping and the economy is still in the doldrums, I thought it would be worthwhile to offer up some money-saving tips when it comes to grilling panini.  Because, truth be told, the cost of making these things can start to add up!

1.  Get to know your deli counter

You might expect that the price of having a deli counter employee slice your meat and cheese for you to order and the price of buying the same exact items in pre-sliced packages would be roughly the same, right? Nope!  At least not at my local grocery chain, Vons.  I checked a number of deli meat and cheese items and found that in most cases you save at least 20% buying at the deli counter vs. the pre-packs.

For example, an 8-oz package of Primo Taglio Provolone cheese costs $4.99, or $0.62/oz.  The exact same brand of Provolone is sold in bulk at the deli counter for $7.49/lb, or $0.47/oz.  That’s a savings of 25% over the pre-pack!  Plus, you can specify exactly how much you want to buy so there’s less opportunity for waste.  True, it may cost you a little more time to grab a number and wait in line at the counter. But if you’re not in a hurry, wait at the counter - your wallet will thank you.

2. Leverage your leftovers

You don’t have to go out and buy special fancy ingredients to make great panini - last night’s roast or this morning’s bacon are excellent sources for sandwich fillings.

I’ve parlayed leftover ham into Ham & Brie Panini, with grilled onions and a honey-Dijon dressing on herbed rye. Leftover chicken dishes have become Chicken-Grape Salad & Gruyère Panini and Chipotle Chicken (No-Flip!) Quesadillas.  And I’ve made Turkey, Cranberry & Havarti Panini, Prosciutto-Wrapped Turkey, Avocado & Swiss Panini and Pulled Turkey Cranberry BBQ Sliders all out of leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Giving your leftovers new life as panini is an excellent way to save on the cost of panini ingredients - plus your family will applaud your creativity!

3. Go “day old” -  you’re grilling it anyway!

Just because we’re looking for ways to save money doesn’t mean we necessarily have to compromise on quality.  And, in general, if I were to suggest substituting day-old bread for fresh-baked that might sound a whole lot like a quality downgrade.  But here’s the thing - you’re grilling the bread anyway.  With panini we’re not going for that fluffy moistness we value in fresh-baked bread. Crispness is the name of our game. So when presented with the opportunity to save a few bucks and purchase day-old artisan bread you shouldn’t have any qualms about going for it.

The same goes for frozen bread. You didn’t use the whole baguette this time around?  Don’t toss the remainder.  Wrap it up tightly in aluminum foil or some Glad Press’n Seal (my new fave wrap), seal it in a plastic freezer bag and freeze it.  The next time you want to grill some panini, just thaw it out at room temperature (generally best not to thaw it in the microwave).

4. Better yet - bake your own bread

The thought of making panini with anything other than bread made this very morning is too much to handle? Well there’s still a cost-effective option for you: baking your own bread.  If you’re like me, visions of dough and kneading and rising and all that usually goes into baking bread lead you to give this tip a big “No way!”. But I urge you to give it a chance - it doesn’t have to be all that involved.

I’m about to give bread-baking a try myself, with the help of a new cookbook I just picked up from Amazon called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The authors, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (whom I follow on Twitter), show you how you can enjoy freshly baked bread every day with just five minutes of active preparation time. No kneading, no starter, no proofing yeast and no need for a bread machine - sounds perfect to me!

There are a few upfront costs involved, such as purchasing a baking stone and a few other tools that make it easier to yield good results. But if you think you might enjoy baking bread on a regular basis then you should definitely see savings over purchasing store-bought bread in the long run. And did I mention the aromas?!

5. Whip up your own condiments

Don’t you just love to ogle all of the jars of yummy dips and spreads and mustards and chutneys and tapenades in the condiment aisle? Usually it takes just a spoonful to pack a flavorful punch in your sandwich, but the cute little jars are hardly budget-friendly. The good news is that condiments like these are generally made up of basic ingredients so you can easily make them yourself and get your flavor punch without spending a lot of money.

Need some good condiment recipes?  Sean at Hedonia recently posted an enticing redux of the “holy trinity” of American condiments: Maple bourbon ketchup, tarragon Dijon mustard and sweet yellow squash relish.  Elise at Simply Recipes offers a host of tasty options that would be wonderful on panini, including Cilantro Lime Herb Butter and Eggplant Relish. I’ve come up with my fair share of simple condiments as well, based on flavors I thought would taste great with the sandwiches I was grilling, such as BBQ mayo, arugula mayo and BBQ remoulade (guess I was on a mayo and BBQ kick this year :-)).

In summary, despite their fancy name panini don’t have to be pricey.  With these money-saving tips you’ll be well on your way to making great panini for less. Do you have more money-saving tips? Please share them in the comments!

What a year of panini-making it has been!  Whether Santa just brought you a new panini press this week or you’ve been grilling with me all year, I hope you’ll enjoy this little summary of my best panini of 2008.  And stay tuned in the new year for lots more fun with the panini grill - be sure to subscribe to Panini Happy to keep posted!

PANINI HAPPY’S 10 BEST PANINI OF 2008

10. Barbecued Salmon Panini Wild coho salmon is basted with a layer of barbecue sauce and crusted in panko bread crumbs before being grilled to perfection.  It’s then transferred to some lightly-charred rustic bread, with a generous amount of barbecue remoulade, fresh tomatoes and red onions. 

9. Grilled Brownie Sundae Panini Grilling brownies on the panini press - it works!  I grilled these up with some slightly tart frozen yogurt inside, the most wonderful blueberry balsamic syrup, a sprinkling of chopped nuts and some freshly whipped cream. 

8. Burger Mini-Panini Sliders For the 4th of July this year we had a blast dressing up our mini-panini hamburger sliders with Humboldt Fog, Point Reyes Blue and Old Quebec Vintage Cheddar cheeses, a variety of condiments and other fun toppings.

7. Grilled Cheese & Honey Panini This sandwich pairs smooth and creamy Swiss raclette cheese with a touch of honey on crispy buttered French bread to create and sweet and savory combination you’ll want to devour in minutes. 

6. “Town” & “Country” Pulled Pork Panini My “Town” version features creamy goat cheese, sweet caramelized onions and fresh cilantro.  The “Country” version - tossed in tangy BBQ sauce and nestled with coleslaw and a blend of cheddar and monterey jack cheeses - is more like the classic southern favorite.  Plus cheese.

5. Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Panini A classic Italian caprese salad is reinvented as bright-flavored panini…and it’s not just for vegetarians either. Sweet heirloom tomatoes and creamy, melted fresh mozzarella are accented by fresh basil and a hint of lemon zest and olive oil on a French baguette.

4. Buffalo Chicken Panini One of my first panini, it’s still a favorite. Simmered in wing sauce, the chicken has all the spicy and tangy Buffalo chicken flavors you love nestled with creamy melted blue cheese and sweet caramelized onions. All folded up inside a pita bread, grilled nice and toasty. 

3. Classic Reuben Panini  Just the sight of all of that bright pink, salty corned beef piled on top of mouthwateringly-acidic sauerkraut, with Thousand Island dressing and melted Swiss cheese on rye…you know you’re in for a flavor explosion.

2. French Dip Panini Sweet caramelized onions, tender roast beef, and Gruyere cheese grilled on crispy French bread with a side of richly robust au jus.

1. Emmental, Honey & Ham Panini My all-time favorite so far! It’s a sweet and savory balance of honey, sharp aged Emmental cheese and thin slices of Black Forest ham, all grilled on a seeded French baguette.

If I tell you that today’s Pancetta, Fontina & Caramelized Shallots Panini recipe was inspired by Rachael Ray, I imagine some of you will perk up a little while others will scroll quickly to the next item in your RSS reader. She’s kind of got that polarizing effect on folks.  Myself, I’m a Rach fan. No, I don’t love every 30-minute meal (still shaking my head over the concept of bread gnocchi) and some of the cutesy catchphrases can grate at times (notice that I’ve tried my hardest never to use the word “sammie” on this blog!). But I gotta respect her for the honest, upbeat, creative and successful person that she is.  She works hard and she’s got a whole lot to show for it.  So, yeah, I’m a fan.

A few weeks ago during the cooking segment on her talk show Rachael grilled Fontina and sage panini to pair with her Beef and Barley Stoup (again with the words!).  I’ve been thinking about that savory Fontina and sage combo for weeks.  And while I don’t do “stoup” I’ve really been loving butternut squash soup this season.  So when I finally grilled my own version of Fontina and sage panini yesterday to go with butternut squash soup I took a flavor cue from Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes and added in some crispy pancetta and sweet caramelized shallots.  Deluxe grilled cheese for sure!

[Read on and Get the Recipe →]

Just a quick note to let you know that Panini Happy now has its very own little homestead on Facebook.  If you’re on Facebook too, come on over and become a fan!

I have to say that I was thoroughly entertained and moved by reading through all of your entries for my Breville Indoor BBQ & Grill giveaway.  Some were hilarious, others were tearjerkers - all were truly memorable holiday gifts.

Now that the contest is closed, I’ll share with you the most memorable gift I ever received…or actually didn’t quite receive.  It was 1982 and E.T. was the huge blockbuster of the year.  And the big holiday toy?  The E.T. Speak & Spell module! You remember the Speak & Spell - big orange precursor to a kiddie laptop that taught you how to spell.  The special E.T. module sold out everywhere.  I was so excited to see the orange little box on Christmas morning - Santa remembered!  Well, unfortunately Santa didn’t remember to actually check inside the box…it was completely empty.  Some desperate person had absconded with my module at the store.  Massive bummer for an eight-year-old, but like the resilient little kid I was I got over it pretty quickly.  But never forgot!

Before I get to the winner of the grill I want to let those of you who didn’t win this time around know that Breville has graciously offered Panini Happy readers an exclusive coupon code good for a 25% discount off of their Ikon Removable Plate Grill at BrevilleUSA.com (you’ll recall this was the panini grill I gave away in the last grill giveaway) until January 15, 2009.  At checkout, just enter the code: panini (all lowercase).  Note that this code is only good on the Ikon Removable Plate Grill and only at BrevilleUSA.com.

Okay, drumroll please…

The winner of the Breville Indoor BBQ & Grill is entrant #3…Mom24@4evermom!

Congratulations, Mom24 - I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season, full of indoor grilling!

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you.  That’s a panini (”panino” for you sticklers) in my microwave.  And I’m ready to suggest that you try this sometime too.

I never would have thought there would be any benefit to introducing steam to a sandwich - especially one that I wanted to be crispy.  But a reader named Candace recently brought to my attention an interesting panini-making method that’s used in a popular casual restaurant chain: steaming.  She comments:

“…they have these steam boxes (about the size of a mini garage fridge) that they use to steam the paninis for about an hour before they go on the panini grill. This method is really nice in my taste because it melts the cheese, and adds moisture to the contents of your sandwich. This way, when your sandwich is grilled, you get nice toasty grill lines on your bread but the inside is super moist and tasty (not soggy but moist).”

Right away I thought of the Mario Batali panini recipe I made last month and how wrapping the sandwich in foil did seem to have the unintended (yet desirable) consequence of making the insides particularly moist.  Unfortunately, the outside was also moist and kind of gummy (not desirable) but Candace’s suggestion to grill the sandwich after steaming seemed like a good solution to crisp things up.  So I set up a little experiment.

[Read on and Get the Recipe →]

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. ‘Tis the season of giving so here’s my best grill giveaway of the year: the Breville Die-Cast Indoor BBQ & Grill! Why is it the best?  Because this is Breville’s top-of-the-line grill! It sells for $199.99 at Amazon, but one lucky reader will receive one for FREE.  What really sets this one apart from Breville’s panini grills is its ability to expand into a 368 sq. inch indoor barbecue, featuring both ribbed and flat plates for cooking everything from eggs to steak.  So you can enjoy grilled foods (including panini!) all year long.

How to enter the giveaway:

What was the most memorable holiday gift you’ve ever given or received? Leave your response in the comments and one lucky winner will be chosen at random (one entry per person please).

Get 5 more chances to win!  Twitter about the giveaway and receive 5 additional entries.  Just copy-paste the following into Twitter (you can modify it, but at least leave the @PaniniKathy part so I can find you):

RT @PaniniKathy Enter to win a Breville Indoor BBQ & Grill at Panini Happy!  http://tinyurl.com/58pluu

Contest ends on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 12:00 PM PST.  Apologies to my international readers, we can only ship the prize to U.S. addresses. THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Subscribe to Panini Happy to stay posted on more giveaways, recipes & tips!

In case you haven’t already heard about this promotion, I wanted to spread the word that Williams-Sonoma is running a 3-day sale on the Breville Ikon Panini Press.  It’s normally $99.95, but it’s marked down to $79.95 until this Sunday, December 7 at midnight PST.  As you know, this is the main grill I use and it’s a great one!

Or you could always wait until next week when there just might be one more great giveaway on Panini Happy…

For today’s third and final installment of my Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwiches series, I bring to you Pulled Turkey Cranberry BBQ Sliders - shredded turkey with a homemade cranberry barbecue sauce (made from leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce!) and piled onto fluffy Hawaiian dinner rolls.

[Read on and Get the Recipe →]