Panini

Today Ali and her roommates had Roommate dinner. I normally cook for Ali and she is vegetarian so tonight since I wouldn't be eating with her I decided to make something a little different. 

This morning I went to the market and bought about 300 grams of Prosciutto (thin sliced ham) and Svitzzero cheese. Can you guess what Svitzzero is? It has holes in it and it's from a place known in America for their knives and chocolate.

I was wondering what to cook with it because for the past many nights I have just been cooking pizza and pasta and I had delicious Prosciuto pizza for lunch. Suddenly it dawned on me......

Panini!

I even put the bread in the oven to melt the cheese in and added some yummy mini tomatoes and spices. They were delicious. I also got a new bottle of wine at the market. I got

This wine. Maybe you can find it at a liquor store. It was about 7 euro here. Last time I got Chianti wine and that was good but strong tasting. Our teachers said to stay away from cheap wine and 1-2 glasses of wine is really all you need and it goes with food. The panini are great though. Cocina da portare via! Take out food! Finally I have something I can make pretty quick to go! Panini is actually plural and should only be used for referring to 2 or more sandwiches. The singular form is Panino. Remember that when you go to Panera Bread (I haven't seen one yet here in Italy (McDonalds, Subway and Burger King do exist however and were all avoiding them). Another thing that doesn't exist in Italy is Alfredo sauce. Alfredo sauce is an American creation and isn't found anywhere here.

I'm loving cooking for myself. I love going to the market and getting new things and taking them home and seeing what I can make with them. I think I'm getting better with each thing I make. The first pasta I made was horrible and Ali and I could hardly eat it! The markets are awesome and everything is very fresh. In Italy, Fresh is cheap. No frozen microwave dinners!