Pinot-Pepper Portobello Panini

I decided to enter a recipe contest.

Watching Food Network, like I often do, I found a delicious sandwich that I thought would be perfectly altered to include a delicious pinot noir-based sauce, here.

I started with portobello mushrooms, tomato, bell pepper, ciabatta rolls, spinach, crumbled goat cheese, and the star: Czar's Pinot & Pepper Sauce.

One important step before slicing the mushrooms is removing the stem and gills:

After slicing the vegetables, including the mushroom (into two thin slices), I marinated them in about 1/4 cup of the Pinot Pepper Sauce.

From there, they went to the grill. Pictured here is the George Foreman grill, the only indoor version I had available to me.

As a binder and flavor addition to the sandwich, I mixed 2 Tbsp of the Pinot Pepper Sauce with 1/4 cup of the crumbled goat cheese to spread onto the ciabatta roll. (This small bowl holds enough to cover two sandwiches.)

This is what happens when slicing a ciabatta roll when the knife is much sharper than suspected.

I layered on the mixture of goat cheese and pinot sauce before loading on the grilled veggies.

Once layered on, I put it all together and carefully pressed the sandwich together to form the crispy, crunchy panini. (I took a bite before grilling the sandwich... it just looked too good.)

Since my father-in-law is the only other person in the house who likes both cheese and mushrooms, I had him be my taste-tester. 

He gave it a 7 out of 10.

He suggested replacing the goat cheese with asiago.

So I did.

You can see the shredded asiago cheese piled under the grilled mushroom.

This raised my creation to a 9. Not too shabby.

My creation, recipe style:

Pinot-Pepper Portobello Panini

(makes two sandwiches)

2 portobello mushrooms, stem and gills removed, sliced into two rounds (4 total)

1 tomato, sliced into 4-6 slices

1 bell pepper, sliced lengthwise

1/2 cup Czar's Pinot-Pepper Sauce (for marinating the veggies)

2 ciabatta rolls, sliced in half

4 Tbsp Czar's Pinot-Pepper Sauce (1 Tbsp per slice of roll)

1/2 cup shredded asiago cheese, divided

1/2 cup spinach, divided

Slice all vegetables as directed, making sure to remove the mushroom stems and gills. Marinate these in 1/2 cup Czar's Pinot-Pepper Sauce for 10-15 minutes (or as long as desired). Grill these for about 5 minutes per side, or desired crunchiness. Slice each ciabatta roll in half. Add 1 Tbsp to each slice of bread, and 1/4 cup asiago cheese to bottom slice. Pile 1/4 cup spinach and half of the grilled veggies onto each sandwich before closing each up. Place sandwich on a grill and press down to make it panini style. (If you do not have a panini press of some kind, you can place a cast iron skillet on top of the sandwich while it is on a regular grill pan or outside grill. Grill each side for 3-5 minutes.) Leave the panini in the press for about 3-5 minutes. And enjoy!

So tell me: Would you give this a try? If so, let me know what you think!!!