Panino - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Panini are small, filled, bread rolls, which are sometimes toasted. They are Italian

Italian cuisine

Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...

in origin, but now found in other countries.

In Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, panino (paˈniːno) is the word for a sandwich

Sandwich

A sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...

made with a bread roll. Sandwiches there are customarily made from a roll or loaf of bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

, typically a ciabatta

Ciabatta

Ciabatta is an Italian white bread made with wheat flour and yeast. The loaf is somewhat elongated, broad and flattish. There are many variations of ciabatta.Ciabatta in its modern form was developed in 1982...

or a rosetta. The loaf is cut horizontally and filled with salami

Salami

Salami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent...

, ham, cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

, mortadella

Mortadella

Mortadella is a large Italian sausage or cold cut made of finely hashed or ground, heat-cured pork sausage, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat . Mortadella is a staple product of Bologna, Italy...

, or other food, and sometimes served warm after having been pressed by a warming grill. A toasted sandwich made from sliced bread is not called 'panino' but 'pane in cassetta' by Italians, and is usually filled with prosciutto and a few slices of cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

, grilled in a sandwich press. A popular version of panino in Central Italy

Central Italy

Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...

is filled with porchetta

Porchetta

Porchetta is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The body of the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood...

, i.e. slices of pork

Pork

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....

roasted with garlic, salt, rosemary, and sage.

In the USA and Canada, the term "panini" refers to any pressed and toasted sandwich; there is widespread availability and use of sandwich presses, often known as "panini presses."

Terminology

The word panino [pa'ni:no] is Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

for "small bread roll"; its plural form is panini. The word is the diminutive form of pane (bread).
Outside Italy, panini is often used as a singular word (like salami
Salami
Salami is cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat, originating from one of a variety of animals. Historically, salami has been popular among Southern European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for periods of up to 10 years, supplementing a possibly meager or inconsistent...

, also an Italian plural noun) and sometimes pluralized as paninis.

In Italian, panino refers properly to a bread roll

Bread roll

A bread roll is a piece of bread, usually small and round and is commonly considered a side dish. Bread rolls are often used in the same way as sandwiches are—cut transversely, with fillings placed between the two halves.-Various forms:...

and a panino imbottito (stuffed panino) to a sandwich. A paninoteca is the word for a sandwich bar.

Panino is also often used to refer to sandwiches in general.

History

Although the first U.S. reference to panini dates to 1956, and a precursor appeared in a 16th-century Italian cookbook, 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.

During the 1980s, the term paninaro
Paninaro
Paninaro was a youth scene that took its name from a group of youngsters who used to meet at the Al Panino bar in Milan's Via Agnello during the early 1980s...

(slang for a maker and seller of panini, or his shop), was extended to its patrons, as well. It was used to denote a youngsters' culture typical of teenagers supposed to eat and meet in sandwich bars such as Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

's Al Panino and then in the first US-style fast food

Fast food

Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...

opened in Italy. Paninari were depicted as fashion-fixated, vain individuals, delighting in showcasing early 1980s status symbols such as Timberland

The Timberland Company

The Timberland Company is an American manufacturer and retailer of outdoors wear with a focus on footwear. Its three key locations are in Stratham, New Hampshire; Danville, Kentucky; and Ontario, California....

shoes, Moncler

Moncler

Moncler, is a clothing company of French origin founded in 1952 by French entrepreneur René Ramillon that manufactures high-end down jackets and sportswear.The company took is name from the abbreviation of Monestier-de-Clermont, an Alpine town near Grenoble...

accessories, Ray-Ban sunglasses and articles from Armani, Coveri, Controvento. So they were lampooned in the Italia 1

Italia 1

Italia 1 is an Italian commercial television channel on the Mediaset network. It is oriented especially at young people.Italia 1 was launched in January 1982 and, originally, was owned by Rusconi; after a few months, however, due to the aggressive dumping practices of Silvio Berlusconi's rival...

comedy show Drive-in by Enzo Braschi. A track entitled "Paninaro

Paninaro (song)

"Paninaro" is a song by English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. Originally a B-side to the 1986 single "Suburbia", it was released as a limited-edition single in Italy during the same year; later, in 1995, a re-recording entitled "Paninaro '95" was released to a wider market, to promote the B-side...

" appears on Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys

Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....

' albums Disco
Disco (album)
Disco is the second album by the UK electronic music group Pet Shop Boys. It was released by Parlophone on .Disco was not an original studio album, but rather a collection of remixes of tracks from their first album, Please, and its respective B-sides...

and Alternative.

In the Dom Fera film "The End," the main character Brendon McKellar instantly foresees the end of every relationship with everyone he meets. Upon meeting a girl with whom he does not see the end of his relationship, he offers to make her some panini at his house. The film was released on YouTube on October 11, 2011.^[2]

Terminology

History

See also