The trouble with making sandwiches with shrimp is that the little guys have a tendency to slip and slide around a bit. I’ve played around with a lot of different shrimp panini concepts and I finally figured out the key to making them work: a wide berth of bread.
Give shrimp a little wiggle room—either on a dense sliced bread or a wider ciabatta—and they play nicely with your other ingredients. Which is a very good thing, because these Greek Shrimp Panini with Pesto, Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes deserve to be grilled as often as possible.
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Greek Shrimp Panini with Pesto, Feta, and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 10 minutes | Total time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4 panini
INGREDIENTS:
- 8 ounces raw medium-size shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 ciabatta loaf, cut into 4 portions, or 4 ciabatta rolls
- 4 tablespoons pesto, purchased or homemade
- 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
- 8 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
- 4 fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
DIRECTIONS:
- Heat the panini press to medium-high heat.
- In a medium-size bowl, toss the shrimp in the oil to coat it. Season the shrimp lightly with salt and pepper.
- Arrange the shrimp in a single layer on the grill (work in batches if necessary) and close the lid. Grill the shrimp until they’re cooked through and opaque, about 2 minutes. Unplug the grill and, while it’s still hot, carefully scrape off any cooked-on shrimp with a grill scraper. Once the grill is cool, clean the grates.
- Reheat the panini press to medium-high heat.
- For each sandwich: Split a ciabatta portion to create top and bottom halves. Spread a thin layer of pesto inside each ciabatta half. On the bottom half layer shrimp, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil. Close the sandwich with the top ciabatta half.
- Grill two panini at a time, with the lid closed, until the cheese is softened and the ciabatta is toasted, 3 to 4 minutes.
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Feta + Pesto + Sun Dried Tomato is definitely a winning combo. I love getting a sample of that dip each time I pass by the hummus guy at the Farmer’s Market. Paired with shrimp between two pieces of grilled bread? Heaven!
Shrimp panini with pesto and sun dried tomatoes?! Sign me up!!
Greek shrimp panini – yes, please!
Yum! My husband and I adore pesto, and of course sun dried tomatoes and feta are also on the top of my favorites list 🙂 sounds lovely.
Shrimp Panini… I could die of happiness.
You are making me very hungry Kathy!
my kind of sandwich!!
Oh yes… this is right up my alley. You so rarely come across pescatarian sandwiches, that I am totally putting this on my list of things to make.
This is one of those combinations I would have never tried on my own – but reading the ingredients here has me salivating and wanting a bite!
What a fabulous flavour for panini, Kathy! Love it.
This looks awesome, Kathy! Love the combo of shrimp and pesto!