Panini Happy® » Vegetarian

Cheddar and Apple Butter Panini with Rosemary Candied Pecans

Kathy — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:16:46 +0000

I don’t know exactly how many panini recipes I’ve posted featuring cheddar and apples (four come to mind) but it’s got to be one of my favorite combinations. I couldn’t help but come up with yet one more once I read this Rosemary Apple Butter Grilled Cheese post on Framed Cooks. The addition of fragrant, woodsy rosemary sounded just brilliant.

I sought to integrate this perennial herb into my latest cheddar-and-apples panini in two ways. First, I tossed together some rosemary candied pecans to add a little sweet crunch and gentle heat (I spiced them with cayenne as well) to the sandwiches (caution: these pecans are very addictive!). Second, I grilled it all on buttered rosemary bread.

I’m sharing the recipe for these Cheddar and Apple Butter Panini with Rosemary Candied Pecans over on Herbivoracious today – be sure to check out my guest post!

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More from Panini Happy:

It's been 3 years since I first made these Monte Cristo Panini for Valentine's Day but they're still among my husband's favorites.

~ Treat your valentine to a special breakfast this year - Ham, Egg and Cheddar Breakfast Crepes, finished on the panini maker.

~ Traveling to a new city soon? Browse Panini Happy’s Great American Sandwich Guide to find the best sandwiches across the country!

~ Ready to buy a panini press? Check out my Panini Press Buying Advice for the features to look for.

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Spicy Caponata Panini…a Guest Post from Michael Natkin of Herbivoracious

Kathy — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 04:51:08 +0000

How gorgeous does that Spicy Caponata Panini look? I can say this objectively because I didn’t actually make it. This one comes from my friend Michael Natkin of the blog Herbivoracious. Michael creates the kind of vegetarian dishes that I would choose over meat any day of the week – big flavors, colors and textures that you want to just devour off of the computer screen (his photography is truly mouthwatering). I’m proud and honored to have him share this incredible sandwich-with-a-kick today. Please welcome Michael!

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I’m excited to be posting on Panini Happy today. Kathy and I have been friends for awhile, and I love what she has built here – a whole empire devoted to that most lovable of all foods, a delicious hot sandwich! I don’t post very many sandwiches on Herbivoracious, but I wanted to come up with a doozy to share with you today.

I’ve been greatly enamored of Mama Lil’s peppers lately. If you haven’t had them, they are hot little pickled goathorn peppers packed in olive oil. They are made up here in Seattle so we see them on pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and even ice cream (kidding!). If you can’t find them in your area, they are available at ChefShop.com.

I thought it would be fun to use Mama Lil’s in caponata, which is a classic Sicilian appetizer of sautéed eggplant in a sweet and sour (agrodolce) sauce. Sicily is close to north Africa, so they often incorporate complex flavors that are not so common in savory dishes around the rest of Italy, like the cinnamon and cocoa powder used here. These flavors aren’t dominant, but add an interesting background to the dish.

Now I’m not kidding when I say this panini is spicy! If you don’t like seriously hot stuff, you can make this with roasted red bell peppers instead, and add a pinch of chili flakes and a bit more vinegar. I bet you can roast peppers right on a panini press, right Kathy?

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Grilled Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons (+ Panini Press Giveaway from Sargento!)

Kathy — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:10:47 +0000

We’ve got teeny tiny grilled cheese sandwiches floating in our soup today! And a Panini Press giveaway sponsored by Sargento!

I was first captivated by the idea of grilled cheese croutons on Pinterest and could not wait to make some of my own. Grilled cheese and tomato soup was my all-time favorite “special” lunch growing up (and probably still is today). It was a back-to-school lunch that I didn’t actually eat at school, as it was a challenge to keep a sandwich warm during the school day and forget about trying to wrangle a hot soup in a Thermos. It was a special treat for the weekends.

Now that my own kids are starting school this week (well, preschool, but they’re excited) I’m looking forward to continuing the grilled cheese and tomato soup weekend tradition. For my Grilled Tomato Soup, I first grilled the tomatoes and onions on the panini press to help bring out their sweetness. I’ve made this soup a number of times now – including for a group of San Diego food bloggers – and everyone has loved it. I made my Grilled Cheese Croutons with Sargento Colby-Jack cheese on sourdough bread with some fresh herb butter on the outside to make them extra-crisp and savory.

Read on for my Grilled Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons recipe and a chance to win a Breville Panini Press (like the one I use!), sponsored by Sargento.

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Mediterranean Grilled Vegetable Tartine

Kathy — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 04:11:08 +0000

Yesterday’s White Bean-Chive Hummus lay the foundation for today’s hugely flavorful (and also quite healthy) Mediterranean Grilled Vegetable Tartines.

The term “tartine” simply refers to an open-faced sandwich. You want to start with a nice-sized slice of grilled bread for this one to accommodate a good layer of hummus and a mound of these incredible marinated grilled vegetables. I first let the eggplant, zucchini and bell peppers get comfortable in an herb paste of aromatic dried herbs, olive oil and balsamic vinegar then grilled them in quick batches on the panini maker. I added some rings of grilled red onion and sprinklings of feta and chives. I didn’t think it was possible to enjoy an open-faced vegetable sandwich this much!

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Grilled Gruyere Panini with Pickled Sweet Onions

Kathy — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 06:06:50 +0000

For those who are counting, today marks the third occasion on which I’ve posted about Gruyère and onion panini (fourth, if you count the French Dip panini, which also contains roast beef). I’ve made these panini with caramelized onions and with marinated onions…now I’m pickling the onions. Seriously, the combination never gets old.

There’s a Pickling Party happening today (stemming from the enthusiasm over last month’s Pie Party), with more than 300 food bloggers and other cooking enthusiasts making and sharing pickled things. What’s great about the pickled sweet onions I made for the occasion is that you don’t have to know how to can (because I don’t). All you have to do is combine a few simple ingredients together and wait.

There are few foods that will brighten up the flavor of a sandwich better than a pickle. They bring that big punch of acidity and, in the case of the onions I’m sharing today, a good dose of sweetness and spice. I let some sweet Walla Walla onions bathe in apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, salt and allspice until they were ready to get some mouths watering. Grab yourself a little bowl of fresh tomato soup to go along with them and get ready for a treat.

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Heirloom Tomato Panini…Relax and Simplify

Kathy — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 23:07:23 +0000

The temptation to sneak in a few slices of thick-cut bacon on these Heirloom Tomato Panini was so strong. I so badly wanted to just chop a little fresh basil from my garden and mix it in with the homemade mayo. Just one little piece of fresh mozzarella? But everything I’ve been hearing about the good old-fashioned tomato sandwich is that its beauty is in its simplicity. So I stayed strong.

Big slices of summer heirloom tomatoes, homemade olive oil mayo and sourdough bread…seasoned with a little flaked sea salt and pepper…that’s it.

And it honestly is all you need. I couldn’t have imagined how such simple ingredients – and so few of of them – could combine into such blissful sweet, salty, briny bites. You know me, I’m a meat and cheese kind of girl. That a tomato sandwich stopped me in my tracks is kind of huge.

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Grilled Ratatouille Panini + Pesto Giveaway!

Kathy — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:47:25 +0000

It’s not usually my style to wrap up my food in little bows, but today I’m making an exception for a few practical reasons. Not only do these Grilled Ratatouille Panini taste even better once the flavors of the grilled summer vegetables, fresh mozzarella and pesto have had the chance to mix and mingle a bit, but they’re also a little on the tall side and can benefit from some harnessing. All right, they do look a little cuter with the bows too (just this once).

Read on for my Grilled Ratatouille Panini recipe and for a fantastic PESTO GIVEAWAY (seven flavors!) from Bear Pond Farm.

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Cheese…On the Grill!

Kathy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 04:00:37 +0000

I couldn’t resist the chance to fire up my parents’ grill while we were visiting in Arizona over spring break last week. The weather was in the 80s, which is just balmy for the desert. Since we’re continuing to celebrate Grilled Cheese Month here on Panini Happy, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go ahead and grill some cheese.

Have you tried halloumi cheese? It’s one of a number of “grilling cheeses” out there, with a high melting point that allows you to easily fry or grill it. It’s a traditional cheese of Cyprus, typically made from a combination of goat’s and sheep’s milk. It’s on the salty side – kind of reminds me of feta, but firmer and malleable.

I found an incredibly simple, flavorful Grilled Halloumi and Lemon recipe from Gourmet with grilled lemons and a lemon-garlic-olive oil marinade. The lemons really seemed to mellow out the saltiness. The bite of the lemons themselves was also mellowed from the grilling process as well as a tiny bit of sugar in the marinade. I gave the dish a little sprinkle of oregano to finish it off. Talk about fresh tasting “grilled cheese”!

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© Panini Happy®, 2011. Panini Happy is a registered trademark of Kathryn Strahs.
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Squash Blossom Grilled Cheese

Kathy — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:23:20 +0000

The delicate, bright yellow flowers that squash produce before developing into the full vegetable are not only gorgeous to look at, but also edibly fabulous when filled with cheese. I procured some fresh squash blossoms this weekend from the renowned Chino Farm, filled them with goat cheese, herbs, shallots and garlic, tempura-fried them and nestled them onto sourdough bread with a sprinkling of some stretchy mozzarella. Squash Blossom Grilled Cheese was outrageously good.

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Grilled Wine & Cheese

Kathy — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:24:45 +0000

Just when I think I’ve tried every possible technique for making sandwiches on this blog I find a new concept that begs me to try it. Have you ever brushed wine inside a grilled cheese sandwich? I was browsing the recipe section of the Panera Bread website when I saw a recipe for Grilled Gruyère on Asiago Cheese Bread calling for dry white wine to be brushed inside the bread. That idea was new to me. And highly appealing.

In a way, it’s not so different from drizzling vinegar or vinaigrettes on a sandwich – it just adds flavor. Come to think of it, wine and cheese are the most natural pairing on the planet. We all should have been drizzling wine on grilled cheese all along!

In case you’re up for giving it a try – or you just want to choose a wine to fill your glass along with your grilled cheese – I found a helpful cheese pairing tool to help guide your choices. Here are a few great-for-grilling cheeses and their recommended wine counterparts:

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