Roasted Tomato and Serrano stuffed Panini

Roasted Tomato and Serrano stuffed Panini

This recipe makes 8 sandwiches. 

Ingredients 

16 slices Sour dough bread 

1.5 cups shredded cheddar 

15 cherry tomatoes halved. 

4 oz Mozzarella pearls - broken into smaller pieces

1 Serrano thinly sliced (almost shaved)

3/4 cup thick tomato paste ( canned or made ahead)

2 tbsp + 2 tbsp Italian basil (chiffonaded)

Butter to apply on the outer side of sandwiches 

Salt in salt shaker 

Stove top grill (cast iron) or a Panini press. 

You will need a flat sided grill and the grooved grill. 

The heavier the press the better is the sandwich

Procedure 

Making tomato paste - blanch tomatoes  in boiling hot water for a few minutes. Once the peel starts to separate take it out of the hot water, peel it and pure it. In a glass or stainless steel dish let this purée oven dry at a  low heat (190 F) for almost 8-10 hrs. Cool it down. If there is still a lot of water content, put it in for another 4 hrs. The paste should resemble cream cheese. 6-8 tomatoes will yield you a cup of paste. 

You can also choose to buy canned tomato paste like this. 

A couple of hours before meal time, keep the cream cheese out. This will make it easier to mix it. 

Place the grill on the stove, flat side up. Rub some oil and salt. The grill is now seasoned to use. Place the halved tomatoes skin side down. Make sure the grill is not too hot that it burns the food. After about 3 minutes on that side, gently turn the tomatoes. After another 3 minutes your tomatoes should be ready to be stuffed. If I am not careful, my son would finish these in a minute ! They are just Yumm! 

Let the tomatoes cool. Meanwhile, Mix the cream cheese, tomato paste, 2 tbsp of basil leaves and salt well. This is the main ingredients.

Now we are ready to assemble the paninis. Slather the cream cheese mix on the insides of the bread, layer it with mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, sliced Serrano,  toasted tomatoes and basil. I assemble all my sandwiches before I get to the grill. 

My younger one doesn’t like Serrano in her sandwiches so I just skip it.

Make sure the grill is on the flame, groove side up! 

Butter the outer sides of the sandwiches and grill them to the crispiness you like. I usually place a heavy tava on the top to help press the sandwiches. You can choose to buy a sandwich press weight here. But my Tava helps make more sandwiches at the same time! I also alternate the sandwiches to be horizontal and vertical to the grill lines to get a nice crisscross pattern. 

Eat hot! A soup makes a great side dish!