Totally Homemade Paninis

We've been really into a make everything from scratch mood lately, so I though I'd share one of our favorites. It's a panini with sourdough bread, mozzarella cheese, tomato, and basil pesto! Technically, the tomato and the mozzarella are store-bought, but the tomatoes will be from our garden soon. And well, I'm not going to get into cheese making, so farmer's market mozzarella will have to suffice.


Let's start with the sourdough bread, it's amazing. It takes a total of 2 days with all the rising time, but it's completely worth it. If you've never made it before, I highly suggest trying it, so much better than the store-bought stuff! For sourdough bread, you start with a 'starter', which you have to feed once a week or so to keep alive, then you add flour, oil, sugar, etc to get the dough. I don't know for sure, but I imagine the recipes are different depending on the exact starter.

So onto basil pesto, it's delicious! And it's super easy to make using a food processor. Just toss in a few garlic cloves, then a handful of toasted pine nuts, then a handful of {washed} Basil {preferably from your garden!}. I usually chop it in that order, then add in olive oil until it's the right paste consistency. I mostly do it by taste not so much by amounts.

 Just assemble and you're ready to grill! We assemble our panini in the following order- mozzarella, then basil pesto, with tomato on top. Then grill it in our panini press until golden brown. Delicious!