Panini and soup

It has finally gotten really cold here and there is nothing better than soup and a sandwich to warm up your belly. Bob wasn't feeling well yesterday, so soup seemed appropriate. Both of these recipes are new. I was a slight overachiever. 

I love broccoli rabe. It's delicious. Normally I roast it, but this sandwich is so good. The mix of the bitter greens with the creamy mozzarella and the spicy red pepper flakes and onion...heaven.  I'm eating the leftovers for lunch. I just dumped that broccoli rabe into the soup and served it up with some bread. yum. yum. yum.

The soup recipe comes from Martha Stewart. You can find it here. I tripled the recipe, because the turkey I had was 1.3 lbs. Who can get half a pound of turkey? I would have made this vegetarian, just adding more veggies or some soy crumbles, but since the hubs was not feeling well, I though I'd go with that ole wives tale of chicken (turkey) soup making you feel better. A few notes on the soup. I made half of it without barley because I didn't want all those carbs. When I went to freeze the soup I just mixed both together so there was less barley in the combined soup. If you want to make it vegetarian use soy crumbles,or just add lots more veggies.

soup cooking

The panini are from my new favorite cookbook - the smitten kitchen cookbook. The book that started the challenge. If you like food just buy this book. Seriously. Everything is amazing. Just buy it.
Broccoli rabe panini with mozzarella - from the smitten kitchen cookbook
This also gave me an opportunity to use my new panini grill pan that I got from my in-laws for Christmas. Fun!
1 lb. broccoli rabe
1 tbs. butter
1 tbs. olive oil, plus more for brushing bread
1/2 medium yellow onion diced small (I used one small onion)
1 medium garlic clove, minced (I used jarred garlic. I'm lazy)
Pinch of red pepper flakes (my pinch was pretty large. I like the spice)
Two four-inch lengths from a flat ciabatta loaf, halved
1/4 lb. thinly sliced fresh mozzarella (I cheated here. I used shredded from a bag, because it is lactose free. It was still really good. It probably would have been better with the fresh)
Remove and discard broccoli rabe's stems. Cut leaves into half inch ribbons. Leave small florets whole, but halve larger ones. (Again, I'm lazy. I just sliced the whole head in 1/2 in ribbons. I didn't bother separating the florets)

Heat butter and 1 tbs olive oil in large saute pan over medium heat. Add onion, a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until onion is a bit brown on the edges, about 7 min. Increase heat to medium high and add rabe, garlic, pepper flakes and saute until greens are tender and wilted, about 4 min. Season with salt and pepper. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of the mixture.

before

after

Heat grill pan or panini press. Brush the outsides of the ciabatta with olive oil. Place bottom pieces on pan and top with half of  broccoli rabe and half of mozzarella slices. 

Arrange tops on top. Lower top of panini press or an additional frying pan onto top of sandwich. Cook for 4-8 min, until bottom is toasted. Carefully flip and grill other side for 3-5 min. 
Carefully cut in half and eat while still hot.

This was the perfect cold weather meal. Happy. Comforting. Cozy.