After dining twice at ‘ino in New York and purchasing their cookbook, Simple Italian Sandwiches: Recipes from America’s Favorite Panini Bar, you knew that I would begin preparing as many panini as were necessary for me to feel confident in my understanding of them, right?
Condimenti
The first step was to make some of the condimenti. Perusing the cookbook, I realized that one thing that had kept my pre-New York panini from really popping was the lack of a flavorful condiment. Generally, a panini is made with a meat ingredient, cheese, and an acidic or sour ingredient. Most of the time I was using mustard but that didn’t have enough impact.
I started with four main ingredients: garlic, red onions, red peppers, and a kind of chile that was the closest thing to a cherry pepper I could find.
Several of the red onions were cut into sixteenths and then tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
After about two hours at a low temperature with frequent stirring, we had a nice mass of caramelized sweet onions. I also made some balsamic roasted garlic bulbs.
Using some of the sweet onions as a base, I chopped some of the hot chilies (mostly deseeded to keep the heat at a tolerable level) and a little bell pepper to create a relish. Normally this is made with cherry peppers, which are mildly spicy round peppers.
Finally, I made peperonata, red peppers cut into one-inch dice and tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme and chile flakes, roasted for thirty minutes under tender.
Bread
The “secret” to ‘ino’s panini is that instead of using loaf bread they use ciabatta. Slicing the top off to make it roughly flat, they then slice the ciabatta in half length-wise. This way each bite has some of the nice crust on the bottom.
I made a couple of loaves of ciabatti and while the flavor was good, the rise wasn’t as high as I thought necessary and the crumb was very wide with large air bubbles. This made for a tough sandwich to grill as the fillings just worked their way through the bubbles and out the crust.
Batch #1
Italian Coppa, sweet onions, roasted garlic, arugula, and gouda cheese.
Homemade pesto, peperonata, and fresh mozzarella cheese.
The results: tasty, but a bit flat. The pesto nearly soaked through the bread.
Batch #2
Similar to the first sandwich – except with pickled red onions instead of roasted sweet onions. More cheese this time as the gouda seems to evaporate rather than melt.
Pesto, peperonata, mozzarella cheese (this time not fresh but lightly aged), with some chile relish for a change.
The results were better with this second batch – my ciabatti were higher thanks to folding over the dough several times during the rise. In this picture, you can see how the rolls have had their tops sliced. Still, though, the panini end up too flat because the bread just isn’t high enough.
Batch #3
This time a trio of sandwiches using a baguette I baked. Since I couldn’t get the ciabatta as high as I wanted, I decided to try an alternate style of bread.
Based on a suggestion from Sheldon (with some modification), here is rocket (arugula), camembert cheese, and the chile relish.
A scrambled egg with roasted sweet onions and gouda.
A different and prettier arrangement of peperonata, mozzarella cheese, and basil pesto.
This trio turned out very nice (accompanied with some of the balsamic roasted garlic) with bread that remained substantial after grilling. The only challenge was that since the diameter of the loaf is pretty small, there was a lot of crust to deal with. I love crusty bread but it was sometimes a bit tough on the roof of the mouth to chew!
Conclusions
One thing I’ve decided is that the regular loaf bread like a boule is the most suitable for panini, despite what ‘ino does. If/when I can make a ciabatti that has enough height or can find a place to buy decent ciabatta, then I’ll switch back to it. In the meantime, I’ll return to my pale ale boule recipe.
Another pleasant discovery – you can use the condimenti for other purposes.
Omelet with lightly pan fried zucchini, mozzarella cheese, and roasted sweet onions.
I hope you enjoyed!
christao408 
Yum!
You are such a perfectionist. And the result is, of course, perfection! These are so tasty looking that I’m going to have to have breakfast NOW! *slinks drooling to the kitchen*
This made me hungry… I think I’m going to go eat, finally (though nothing in my kitchen is as beautiful as that, apparently.)
oh my god, you are such a genius at being able to do this.same with how you colour coordinated your lving room (i think earlier you showed a pic).i’ve just painted my bedroom and it’s not great (its good enough because i’m so tired), even though i thought about the colours. so to get things right, means you have a good eye.
The ingredients are so good and wholesome. I’d like to have some on my next visit to BKK! “Ahroi Mak Mak!”
@stepaside_loser – House decoration credit goes entirely to my husband. As for the food, no genius at all. Just a stubborn willingness to keep trying.@murisopsis – The one with scrambled egg, onions, and cheese would be a perfect choice for your breakfast!@CurryPuffy – Well, come visit…@Passionflwr86 – They say you shouldn’t Xanga on an empty stomach! =D@yang1815 – Makes me hungry reading my own entry and I’ve already eating these sandwiches!
By the way … I read your “summary” blog that you had linked to in your profile. Very interesting… maybe I skimmed over it by accident, but I was curious – did you get married in Thailand, then, since you couldn’t in CA? I think I’m going to subscribe … your pics and blogging style are great!
yes. I enjoyed this a lot. But that’s not surprising. I always enjoy every thing you have posted here regarding foods.
I’d love to try all of these!!!
Yum…what time does the taste testing start?And by the way…it looks like the rumors were true…hope you stayed in and out of the way of the excitement there in Bangkok!!
All your batches look amazing. It is breakfast time here in Oz and I could easily sit down and eat one of your panini…….. yummmmmmmmm
@Passionflwr86 – We were married in Iowa last summer. Sadly, Thailand doesn’t recognize same-sex couples, either – not even as domestic partners let alone as spouses. I’m glad you like the blog and welcome you to subscribe. I hope you’ll also be an active commenter.@ZSA_MD – Can you imagine how great panini would be with Indian flavored fillings? OMG!@icapillas – C’mon over! =D@Redlegsix – Actually, you would never know that there’s anything going on as it is really quiet over in the Thong Lo area. A lot of people left town because Songkhran is next week, others are staying off the streets because of the protests, so it is like a ghost town here. Finally, no traffic jams on Sukhumvit!@venice – The egg, onion, and cheese would be my rec for breakfast!
@christao408 – Chris, I tried it this afternoon with fried zucchini, eggplant, and carmalized sweet onions, with a touch of cumin, chili powder and turmeric, and cilantro. It was exceptional.
@ZSA_MD – Oh, that sounds great. I’ll have to try some more of these fusion combinations.
@christao408 – No kidding! It happens to me too >_<
I really wish those pictures were lick-able. Yum!
Drooling. Great work and I bet worth every bit of effort!!
hey hey hey.. 69 is a good number! i wouldn’t complain.
@Made2Order – You were waiting so you could say that, right? =P How was the flight to Toronto?@TheCheshireGrins – I can imagine someone’s fiancee wondering what the drool is doing on the laptop screen.@turningreen – Oh, it was definitely worth the effort.
I think basil pesto is delicious. I should try to make my own
I’m late getting here – but as you know, I’ve been away. These all look great. I mentioned in an earlier ‘Panini’ post that the ones you are showing look completely different to ones I’ve had here in restaurants.
@Wangium – Very easy to make and it keeps beautifully in the freezer. Break off a chunk and use it as a spread or a pasta sauce as needed, and since the water content is low it melts for use very quickly.@Chatamanda – True, good reason for not commenting…
That really looks amazing. Always looking for new ideas. Cant believe the onions took two hours. I will have to learn patience first
Looks tasty!I’m pretty sure I’d try anything with Gouda on it.
@Umnenga – Actually, the onions were supposed to take three hours or so and probably would have benefitted from another hour’s worth of patience on my part! =D@epiginoskete – It is a great cheese, isn’t it? Melts so nicely.
Yum!