Anticiplate

Brady is my coworker Noe’s husband.  We both enjoy cooking and he offered to let me review one of his recipes.  Here is his story about this recipe….

During a trip to San Francisco last summer, I went to an amazing little panini house for lunch with my wife and friend. Their most popular sandwich, which I ordered and thoroughly enjoyed, was a pear, bacon, and gorgonzola panini.  The combination of a grilled, crunchy outside, with the tartness of the pear, and the smokiness of the bacon were perfect. Not to mention the melted gorgonzola intertwined, bringing all the flavors together.  Once back in Seattle, I was determined to recreate this masterpiece. Not having a proper panini press and it being summer, I decided to take this sandwich to the grill and make it open faced. It’s great for parties or a weekday meal…

Serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

6 slices Applewood Smoked Bacon, halved

A loaf of pain rustique (a thinner version of Ciabatta), halved and cut into sandwich size pieces

2 Bosc pears, sliced thick enough so that they wont fall in between the grill grate

1/4 lb. Blue Gorgonzola (I bought the spreadable kind called Dolce Ciresa)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 sprigs fresh thyme for garnish, stripped of leaves

Prepare Grill or Grill pan and heat it on high. 

Cook bacon in  a nonstick skillet over medium high heat until crispy. Drain on a paper towel and set aside.  

Meanwhile, drizzle the sliced pears and halved bread slices with extra virgin olive oil.  Grill the pear and the bread for a couple of minutes to get nice grill marks on them.  You can press down the bread with a heavy skillet to make the bread flatter, if you prefer.  Take the pears and bread off of grill. 

While the bread is still hot, spread gorgonzola on one side of the bread until melted. Make sure you get every square inch of the bread spread with the gorgonzola.  Top with the grilled pears and bacon. Sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves.  

*Rather than making this an open-faced sandwich, you could also grill another piece of bread and then press the entire sandwich on the grill with a heavy skillet to flatten it.  This would also work if you had a panini press.

I served this with a mixed green salad with a red wine/thyme vinaigrette.