Panini makers are one of the hottest appliances in the kitchen-goods marketplace today. They are bought by home cooks for their own use and they are popular as wedding, Mother’s Day, and Christmas gifts. With a panini press, you can get a bubblingly hot, slightly crunchy, and rich-in-flavor meal on the table in a matter of minutes.
Nobody knows how to coax more delectable food from a panini press than Kathy Strahs, whose celebrated blog Panini Happy has covered the machines since 2008. While panini are sandwiches, they’re not just for lunch: They make substantial dinnertime or breakfast/brunch fare as well, as Strahs’s 205 recipes amply prove. In roughly one-quarter of the recipes Strahs shows that you can make lots of other things, from burritos and quesadillas all the way to your own homemade ice-cream cones, on a panini maker.
Strahs gives readers insiders’ tips for cooking on different models and types of panini presses. For the millions of owners of “countertop grills” (such as the George Foreman machines), she reveals how to make scrumptious panini, and many other things, on machines that are not dedicated panini makers. From an early-morning Blueberry Ricotta Grilled Cheese to an end-of-supper Grilled Strawberry Shortcake—there’s an entire chapter devoted to dessert panini!—this beautifully photographed and colorful volume gives readers all the ideas they need to enjoy their panini presses for years to come.
