Smoked Turkey, Gruyere & Membrillo Panini
It’s my turn to rise and throw up my arms for the “pretty food” wave! Starting the wave were two of my favorite food bloggers, Erin from Erin Cooks and Katy from Sugarlaws, who each incorporated sweet little heart motifs into their creations. Erin cut out heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies to make her XOXO Ice Cream Sandwiches and Katy used a heart stencil to give her Cinnamon Pancakes extra-romantic appeal. So when I stumbled across the cutest little flower-shaped sandwich cutters at Williams-Sonoma this past weekend (a very dangerous place to shop when you’ve got time on your hands and you write a food blog!), I was eager to join the trend and make pretty panini!
My Smoked Turkey, Gruyère & Membrillo Panini is smoky, sweet, salty and nutty - the combination really works. In a Panini Happy first, I went with two types of bread - a sourdough and a dark rye - to add to the “layered” look as well as bring in more flavor.
Are you familiar with membrillo, a.k.a. quince paste? Myself, I’d never heard of quince or membrillo until I found the spread in the cheese section at my local Bristol Farms store. Roaming in this section is a bit of a grazer’s paradise, with little tasting stations every few feet. There was a station featuring manchego cheese, which I love, and they were cross-selling little tubs of a reddish-purplish condiment to go with it. Quince is a very tart fruit, related to apples and pears. Once cooked, it’s sweet and floral. The combination of the tangy manchego with the sugary-sweet quince paste was incredible! So I took home a tub in the hopes that I’d find other cheeses - some that melt a little better than manchego - to pair it with on panini. Gruyère, with its salty nuttiness, turned out to be one such cheese.
![](http://paninihappy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/flowershapes-300x225.jpg "Bread and Smoked Turkey \\"Flowers\\"")
Truth be told, pressing these floral shapes out of bread and turkey wasn’t entirely a walk in the park. Ideally, it would have been great if the cutter were a little sharper. But then I guess it wouldn’t pass standards for a kids’ tool! So I ended up helping things along with my paring knife. I’d contemplated cutting out the sandwiches after they were grilled, but I envisioned a crumby mess ensuing. Pre-cutting the individual shapes worked out great - and for those enticed by The Pioneer Woman’s Eggs in a Hole last week, you end up with lots of pretty holes!
My husband, sister and I enjoyed our sandwich flowers with Baked Carrot Oven Fries from 101 Cookbooks and a simple green salad. “What a pretty dinner!” exclaimed my husband. Mission accomplished.
Smoked Turkey, Gruyère & Membrillo Panini
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
4 slices sourdough bread
4 slices dark rye bread
Membrillo (quince paste)*, room temperature
12 slices smoked turkey breast
4 oz. Gruyère cheese, grated
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat panini grill to medium-high heat (375 degrees).
For each sandwich: Spread membrillo onto a slice of the sourdough bread. Add 3 slices of turkey and about an ounce of cheese. Top with a slice of dark rye. Grill 4-5 minutes until the cheese melts and grill marks appear. Serve immediately and enjoy!
NOTE: If you decide to cut the panini into shapes with a sandwich cutter, as I did, I recommend cutting out the bread and turkey pieces prior to assembling the sandwich.
* If you’re feeling up to making your own membrillo, there’s a great recipe for it at Simply Recipes.
