Recipe
Panino with courgette frittata and roasted peppers
Before there were sandwich shops there was the panino con la frittata, and it belonged to men who worked outdoors.
If you spent the 1950s or 1960s on a building site, in a field, or on a road crew anywhere in Italy, what you carried was a piece of bread with something between it, and what was between it was very often a slice of last night's frittata. It required no reheating. It needed no cutlery. It did not leak. It could be eaten with one hand while sitting on something that was not a chair. It is the direct ancestor of every packed lunch in this book, and the reason the bento chapters exist at all.
It then went through the usual cycle that happens to poor people's food, which is that it became embarrassing, then obscure, and then, somewhere in the last fifteen years, expensive. There are places in Rome now charging seven euros for a panino con la frittata, and in fairness to them they are often extremely good.
Yours costs about a euro fifty. Make the frittata on Sunday with courgettes, keep it in the fridge, and build the panino in ninety seconds on a weekday morning while the kettle boils. Roasted peppers from a jar are the one modern shortcut that improves on the original: they bring sweetness and acidity, and an opened jar lasts a month.
The assembly note that matters is that the frittata must be completely cold. A warm frittata steams inside the bread and turns the crumb to paste within an hour, which is precisely why the builders made theirs the night before rather than that same morning.
Ciabatta, or any roll with a real crust to it.
- Prep 10 min
- Cook 12 min
- Serves 2
- Cost €
Method
- 1
Fry the courgette rounds in 2 tbsp of the oil with the garlic over high heat until golden at the edges. Season and discard the garlic.
8 min
- 2
Beat the eggs with the parmigiano, salt and plenty of pepper, pour over the courgettes in a 20 cm non-stick pan, and cook on low until almost set.
8 min
- 3
Flip it onto a plate and back into the pan for 2 minutes, or finish it under a hot grill.
4 min
- 4
Cool the frittata completely, ideally overnight in the fridge. This is not optional if the panino is for the next day.
20 min
- 5
Split the rolls, drizzle the cut faces with the last of the oil, and lay in a slice of cold frittata.
2 min
- 6
Top with the roasted peppers and basil, close, and wrap tightly in paper so it presses slightly on the way to work.
2 min
Variations
Any frittata works here, including the pepper and salami one elsewhere in this book. Add rocket, or a smear of pesto on the top half of the roll. Sun-dried tomatoes or grilled aubergine instead of peppers. A slice of provolone or scamorza for something richer. Focaccia instead of ciabatta, which is oilier and holds up even better. Eat within about eight hours; the bread starts to give after that.