the infamous Grill Pan introduces our star player: Turkey Panini

Music: Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin (oh yeah... eat your heart out)

Drink: Water

Question: So what do you when you are having a particularly tiresome day, but still want to cook and eat something absolutely delicious?

Question: After making that fabulous aioli, how can I use it on more things, but keep it fresh and new?

Question: How do I do all this in one pan?

Answer: Panini.

After our longest but wonderful and victorious run yet, the last thing I wanted to do was get out lots of complicated instructions and.. well … try! What?! I was tired! (and sweaty!) So I literally took all five ingredients and the grill pan (my favorite kitchen utensil of the moment) and off we went!

And here is where I am going to put in a plug for the underrated Grill Pan. Honestly, I wasn’t so jazzed when we bought this.. thinking “who wants nasty soaked-in-its-own-grease table top burgers?” or “if I want to grill I’ll light the dang grill!” …oh no. I was mistaken

So versatile!

So simple to clean!

So fabulous!

I mean not only crispy paninis.. but perfect chicken... tender turkey burgers all worthy of great salivation. Hungry yet? Good! Go make a Panini on your new grill pan :P

Remember to always experiment! Try switching up the ingredients… Go wild! This makes ordinary sandwiches look… well…  ordinary!

Ingredients for Red Pepper Turkey Panini

×          1 whole wheat roll

×          Slathering of Red Pepper Aioli

×          1.5 slices of (#2 cut) Low sodium deli turkey

×          3 oz mozzarella, as fresh as possible

×          Handful of Arugula

-Or-

Ingredients for Sun Dried Turkey Panini

×          1 whole wheat roll

×          4-5 sun dried tomatoes

×          1.5 slices of (#2 cut) Low sodium deli turkey

×          3 oz mozzarella, as fresh as possible

×          Handful of Arugula

Major Tools

×          Grill pan (!!)

×          Flat pan lid

Instructions

1.       Preheat your grill pan on medium

2.       Slice bread in half on its longest axis (there’s the engineer coming out)

3.       Load up turkey, cheese and either aioli or sun dried tomatoes

4.       Place sandwiches on the grill pan and smoosh for a few seconds every minute or so with the pan lid… it will flatten out (which is what we want)

5.       Flip a few times and press until you have a fabulous smelling crispy golden brown bread crust and your cheese is melty

6.       Remove from heat

7.       Open the sandwich carefully and stuff in some arugula

8.       Close, cut on the diagonal, and inhale!