Italian panini with salami, mortadella and pesto – crisp on the outside, melting within.
This is one of those sandwiches you simply have to make. An Italian panini on a roll made from pizza dough, filled with melted cheese, creamy pesto and the best toppings – mortadella, salami, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh rocket.
The sandwich starts with pizza dough, shaped into small baguettes and baked – they are then filled with cheese and toasted in a panini press until crisp and golden on the outside and melting inside. Once opened, the roll is spread with pesto and filled with all the good things from the Italian kitchen, then closed up again into the perfect, flavour-packed hand-held meal.
It is quick to make and tastes outrageously good – warm or cold. Perfect for lunch, an easy dinner, a picnic or the lunchbox.
What makes this sandwich so special
What makes this sandwich so irresistible is the interplay between the crisp, home-baked pizza bread and a filling that is unmistakably Italian.
The bread is made from pizza dough – either freshly made or left over from the day before – and when it is toasted in the panini press with cheese inside, you get a sandwich with a crisp exterior and a soft, melting centre. The cheese melts beautifully and binds the whole sandwich together with its creamy richness.
The filling takes its cue from classic Italian flavours – fresh green pesto, deep, intense sun-dried tomatoes, silky mortadella and full-flavoured salami. Then the fresh rocket, which adds the final balance with a little bitterness and bite. It all comes together in a sandwich that is both comfort food and pure eating pleasure.
It is the perfect way to use up pizza dough – and to make something that feels like a bite of Italy at the same time. You can easily adapt it to your taste, serve it warm or cold, and take it with you on the go. It is just as good for Sunday lunch as for the lunchbox, or as a quick and genuinely satisfying dinner.
Mortadella, salami and pesto sandwich
Ingredients
- 4 sandwich rolls
- 4-8 slices cheese – e.g. provolone, gouda or similar
- 8 tbsp green pesto
- 4 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
- 8 slices mortadella
- 8 slices wafer-thin sliced salami – e.g. salsiccia
- 2 handfuls rocket
- Freshly ground pepper
Method
- Split the rolls in half, lay the cheese inside and close them. Toast in a sandwich toaster or panini press until the cheese has melted and the bread is crisp.
- Open the rolls and spread with pesto, scatter over the sun-dried tomatoes and fill with mortadella and salami.
- Top with rocket and freshly ground pepper and close the sandwiches.
- Serve the sandwiches straight away, or take them on a picnic – they taste at least as good cold.
Nutrition
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