Panini Speech/Recipe

This is an outline and a recipe for a panini speech that I made last semester.

Look at watch, does anyone know what time it is?  Its PANINI TIME!!

Today I am going to show you how to make the perfect Panini.

The beauty of a Panini is that it is anything you want it to be.

One can use items they find in their fridge to put together a sandwich.  Imp thing to remember throughout this speech is that both the Panini, and the Panini maker are extremely versatile.

- Supplies:

- Panini Maker

- Bread,

- Basil Pesto,

- Grilled Chicken

- Provolone cheese

- Oil

- Sun Dried Tomatoes

- Red Pepper (Optional)

- Knife

Making a Panini can be broken down into three easy steps, or the three p’s of Panini making, prep, pack, and press,

First you need to prep all your ingredients,

Turn on Panini maker, put it on the sandwich setting, if no sandwich setting, the lower the better, you would rather wait a little longer for it to be done than have a burnt Panini.  If you don’t have a Panini maker you can do this   According to RachelRayMag.com “Place the 4 panini on the hot pan. Weigh down with a heavy skillet and cook for 2 minutes, then flip the panini and cook for 2 minutes longer.” 

Choose meat, I chose chicken, don’t need a meat.  Cut the chicken in half, if you are using cold chicken this is good to warm it up, don’t put on for too long because the chicken will also cook while its in the Panini.  Searing the chicken will give it a nice crust when you eat it. 

Choose your bread, I chose this Italian bread because of its crust, and it is what we had in the house, usually the harder the crust on the bread the better, you don’t want a sandwich the size of pancake when you are done with it, but hey some people like that

Cut your bread open in half

Cut your olives into halves, simply because you want them spread out all over the sandwich, there is nothing worse than getting a whole olive in a bite of Panini, then it throws the whole balance off

Juliene your sundried tomatoes, a fancy way of saying cut them thinly up and down, same reason you cut the olives, so that nothing overpowers when you take a bite.

Slice your red pepper into thing pieces, be careful not to touch your eyes,

Secondly, we are going to move onto the second p of Panini making, pack.

Now we are going to pack all of the ingredients together

Always start with the smear, or sauce if you have any, in this case the pesto, apply a nice, even layer.

Spread the pesto on the top of the bread, to taste, if you don’t have pesto use something else, oil works, although if you are using an oily meat such as salami or sausage, you have to be careful because you can put too much oil, the Panini is very versatile, choose a sauce that fits you

Second the protein, because it is usually the biggest, if no protein use your biggest vegetable, such as a tomato or a portabella mushroom.

Then put your sundried tomatoes, olives, red pepper, in no particular order

Now we put the cheese on, always put the cheese on last, it is kind of the glue of the sandwich; it will melt over everything and hold everything together.

You can brush oil on to make it crustier, I don’t do this, oil already in the pesto.  Be careful not to put too much oil esp if your meat is a salami or a capicolla, these are going to excrete a lot of oil when they are heated up.

Now we are onto the third p of Panini making which is press.

The simplest step of them all, put the sandwich on the machine, and press it down, make sure it is in the middle

A tip is to put it on diagonally to get the Panini marks, although they don’t occur on all types of bread.

We are going to want to keep the Panini in there for 2-3 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

I have shown you how the Panini is a very versatile thing to make, you can use nearly anything, but the Panini maker itself is also very versatile.

According to Diane Davis Lubbok a writer for the Avalanche Journal“You can do chicken, you can do vegetables, you can do pancakes if you have a griddle attachment,” said Kathy Strahs, who writes a blog called Panini Happy. “It actually can replicate quite a few objects you may already have in your house — a toaster, a griddle, obviously a grill.”

http://lubbockonline.com/life/2011-04-13/panini-press-one-small-appliance-many-fabulous-uses-chicken-dessert#.TueGc5hJY20

I love using it to cook eggs, adjust the tilt of the machine, and throw your eggs on, scrambled or over easy. 

Very easy to make quesadillas as well, sometimes you get tired of eating bread all the time, although I don’t, quesadillas are even easier than paninis, just throw some cheese in there, takes less time than a sandwich makes a great meal

Sautee vegetables, I used it the other night to sauté some onions and mushrooms, really easy, no clean up

According to studies highlighted in Changing Rhythms of American Family Life, by time use researchers Suzanne Bianchi, John Robinson and Melissa Milkie, when you ask women how much time they spend washing dishes in a week, they’ll tell you 5.5 hours. Men spend say 2.6 hours.  Total of nine hours per week washing dishes.  If you cook a couple of your meals on the Panini you can save yourself a lot of time and use this time for something else.  Great for me personally because I hate cleaning up, all you do is take a paper towel or a sponge, make sure the Panini maker is off and wipe it.

These are just a few uses of the Panini maker besides making Panini’s that help make it such a versatile tool that every kitchen should have

Eat sandwhich

In conclusion we must remember the three p’s of Panini making, prep, pack, and press.

I hope my presentation has shown you not only how versatile paninis and the Panini maker are, but also how much fun you can have making them.

If you need a Christmas present idea for the parents, go out and buy a Panini maker, you will benefit from it too. So remember that next time we have a big snow storm and your stuck in the house with no food, and a cup of soup and some hot chocolate just wont do it.  Heat up the Panini maker and work some Panini magic.