making do

Well, yesterday was Columbus Day, and tomorrow is our observance of Columbus Day. Today is in between the two, so I decided to make a weekend of it. This is an Italian household (well, half Italian).  Our friend who was coming to dinner, had been looking into panini presses, so I told him I'd serve panini next time he came.  Today was the day -  minestrone and panini.

I've never had panini, but I had an idea of a heated-up pressed-down sandwich. Wikipedia says, "in Italy, the word for a sandwich made from bread other than sliced bread... Examples of bread types are ciabatta,...."  Looking for recipes online, I saw a few versions which had meat slices, apple or pear slices and fancy cheese, with some kind of tasty dressing. Well, I've been in a bit of a frazzle lately and ended up forgetting to buy a few "essentials".

I'd imagined there was some spinach for the soup in the freezer, but there wasn't. However downstairs I did find wilted romaine - bingo!  I remembered to buy ciabatta, but forgot about any fancy cheese. I would just have to make do. I defrosted leftover chicken and picked it all off the bones - there was plenty; sliced up a couple of apples, and decided plain old American cheese would be good enough. But what about a dressing? I really didn't want to bother looking up a recipe, so I mixed up mayo with a cherry pomegranate dressing that we don't like too much but which is good for salads with fruit - bingo again!  I melted some butter in my Scanpan and heated them up, pressing down with the spatula, and oh how tasty!

panino is singular; panini, plural

Very filling, too. One sandwich was enough with a bowl of soup. And, Stella D'Oro Anisette Sponge cookies for dessert, because I really have been too frazzled lately to make dessert. So, aside from the ciabatta, which was kind of expensive, I used what was around. And maybe next time I can try and make my own.