I sometimes feel like I go a month and have new and exciting recipes every day, and then some weeks I sit down on Saturday to make a menu for the week and cannot come up with ONE. SINGLE. RECIPE. This was the dilemma last week, so I pulled out 5 or 6 cookbooks that I hadn’t looked through in a few months and I ran across this in the Nov. 2007 Williams-Sonoma magazine:

Ligurian Panini

2 pieces focaccia bread
2 tablespoons Parmesan dipping oil
6 thin slices salami
3 oz. prosciutto, thinly sliced
3 oz. fontina cheese, thinly sliced
2 roasted red bell peppers, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
2 oz. arugula

Preheat electric panini maker according to maufacturer’s instructions.

Slice through middle of each focaccia square to make a top square piece and bottom square piece. Lay pieces, cut sides up, on work surface; brush cut sides with Parmesan dipping oil. On bottom half of each piece, place 3 slices salami; top with 1 or 2 slices proscuitto. Arrange cheese, bell peppers and arugula on top, dividing evenly. Top each with one of remaining focaccia peices, oiled side down.

Place sandwiches on preheated panini maker; cook according to manufacturer’s instructions until bread is golden and cheese is melted, 3-5 minutes.

Transfer sandwiches to cutting board; cut in half. Serve immediately. Serves 2.

First of all, this recipe was super easy to follow. I actually think the OVER explain everything, just incase you’re really dumb. So, easy to follow? Check.

Secondly, this was a really good twist on normal panini’s. Philip was a little disappointed to hear that there were no tomatoes included in these, but I think the red peppers were such a good addition and gave a little “crunch” to the sandwich.

And lastly, I would definitely make it again. I don’t think Philip was a huge fan of them, but I really loved them. And it gave us a good chance to bust out our Parmesan oil that we bought after our wedding with $200 of William’s Sonoma gift cards (note: the oil was not $200, we just ran out of things to buy and ended up buying random stuff we didn’t really need…like three types of oil).

I did make a few adjustments – I used Provolone cheese instead of Fontina, cause Fontina was like a billion dollars for a tiny wedge. Also, I used spinach instead of arugula and it was delicious. Oh…and we don’t have a panini maker, so I just cooked them in a skillet. Maybe we should have bought that with our WS giftcards.