August is sandwich month so we wanted to kick it off with one of our new sandwich favorites: a quince, brie, and black forest ham panini. Our friends over at IMUSA sent us their panini press to try out and challenged us to make a panini sandwich Muy Bueno style. Because we love a good challenge, we were all over it.

 

We’ve been on this brie kick lately so it was definitely on our list of ingredients. One night we decided to have a “design your own panini sandwich night” so off to the grocery store I went. I picked up all sorts of cheeses, breads, meats, fruits, and vegetables to have for our challenge and that’s when I found the quince paste.

What is quince you ask? Well quince is a fruit that looks like a round Bartlett pear. A quince fruit is rather hard to bite into. My grandma had an arbol de membrillo (quince tree) in her backyard, they were never really my favorite because of the hardness issue, but when made into preserves for a sweet empanada filling the unique flavor is definitely memorable. I remember going to the mercado in Mexico and having it as a thick paste-like candy. So when I saw the quince paste at the local grocery store I couldn’t resist. I quickly started getting ideas for my part of the challenge.

Everyone had a great time designing their own panini. The combinations were interesting. They all tasted great but my sister and I liked the quince, brie, and black forest ham combo the best. This sandwich is a little sweet, a little salty, a little gooey, and perfectly toasted.

The IMUSA panini press does not have the traditional ridges to brand the bread like most panini presses. The surface is flat which toasts the sandwich perfectly and makes it very easy to clean. Who needs ridges on their sandwich anyway? The stylish chrome design is ideal for your counter top and stores easily. For the money this is an excellent product.

Let us know what you think after you’ve tried this recipe for yourselves. If you don’t have a panini press then check out the one sold by IMUSA on Amazon, the hot plate is big enough to hold 2 paninis at once. We highly recommend this IMUSA panini press.

Makes: 6 sandwiches

Ingredients

½ loaf of French bread, sliced

Olive oil

½ pound Black Forrest Ham, sliced

½ red onion, thinly sliced

Quince paste, thinly sliced

Brie cheese, thinly slice

Directions

Turn on your panini press and let it get nice and hot.

Using a bread knife, slice the French bread at a 45-degree angle. Your bread slices will be bigger if sliced this way. Brush olive oil on one side of each slice of bread.

Place each of the following on one slice of French bread, in this order, brie, ham, onions, and quince. Top with a slice of bread. You want to make sure the brie is on the bread so that it’s closest to the heating element.

Place the sandwich on the panini press, oiled side touching the press, and press down on the sandwich. Allow the sandwich to toast for about 3-4 minutes, just long enough for the bread to turn a golden brown and the brie to melt.

Remove and slice in half. Enjoy!

Be sure to “like” IMUSA on Facebook for more recipes and info on their products.

Gracias IMUSA for gifting this panini press for us to try. It truly surpassed our expectations. This is a sponsored post. All recipes and opinions are our own. 

Photography by Jeanine Thurston