Overview

In many English-speaking countries, a panini, from Italian, meaning "small bread, bread roll" is a grilled sandwich made from bread other than sliced bread.

 

Examples of bread types used for panini are baguette, ciabatta and michetta. The bread is cut horizontally and filled with deli ingredients such as cheese, ham, chicken, salami, or other delicious food, often served warm after having being pressed by a warming grill.

History

The sandwiches became trendy in Milanese bars, called paninoteche, in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

Trendy U.S. restaurants, particularly in New York, began selling panini, whose popularity then spread to other U.S. cities, each producing distinctive variations of it.