Easy Panini

This is one of my favorite sandwich recipes. It's incredibly versatile as far as ingredients you can use. The one I'm doing is a fresh italian panini.

Difficulty: Easy as bagging the school slut at fraternity kegger.

Ingredients:

• Fresh mozzerella
• Basil
• Tomato
• French Bread or Focaccia
• Pesto/Tapenade/Aioli (if you're feeling sassy)
• Proscuitto (if you're feeling carnivorous)
• Olive oil (veggie oil works as well, but olive is better )

Supplies:

• Stove
• Pan
• Brick
• Tinfoil
• Spatula

Method

First off, go and get a brick. I grabbed one out of the walkway in front of my house. Take a sheet of tinfoil, and wrap the brick like a present.

Next, get your ingredients together. Cut your bread into sandwich-sized chunks, and slice it in half, lengthwise. Layer your condiment of choice (if any), then the tomato, then the cheese, and finally the basil. The order doesn't really matter, I suppose.

Get out your pan, and put it on the stove. Heat the stove to medium/medium-high. When the pan is heated, toss the proscuitto in (if you have it). Get it slightly crispy around the edges, and then pull it out of the pan. Put it on your sandwich. Put a thin layer of olive oil on the bottom of the pan and put your sandwich in the pan (maintaining a medium heat).

Put the top half of your bread on your sandwich, and balance the brick on top, pressing down a little. Don't press too hard, though.

Let the sandwich brown on the bottom. I'm not sure exactly how long, but check after 3-4 minutes. When the underside is done, it will look like this:

Finale

Flip it over and put the brick back on. Let it brown like the other side. Once it's brown, cut it in half, choose your favorite side-snack, put it on a plate and enjoy!