Fury-ous Nutella Berry Panini

One of the best things I brought back from my week at the Culinary Institute was new friends. One of those friends just so happened to be a student there, named Lauren Fury. She’s a firecracker, folks, with lots of ideas, lots of enthusiasm, and lots of desire to blog. You know that I support THAT. So, please welcome my new friend Miss Fury to the world of blogging. I hope you’ll see a lot more of here here!

In the meantime, you can follow along with her brand new site – The Food and the Fury. Go check her out! Now…I turn it over to Lauren…

It’s time for The Food and the Fury to burst onto the scene and boy it’s been a long time coming! Eleven months ago I stepped on the campus of The Culinary Institute of America for the first time as a student ready to start my blog and share my food filled life with the world. I’ve learned a million things since then but probably the best thing I’ve learned to accept is that you can’t have everything you want right when you want it. Time has a way of giving and taking, and there are only so many things we humans can control. The rest I’d rather leave to fate. Trust me, if you do this, you will be happier-I promise.

About a week or so ago I met my current motivational gem, Susan, when she came to take the World Cuisine Boot Camp class we offer to food enthusiasts at the CIA. We instantly clicked and the subject of her own blog cam up. When she found out I had this unfinished, or un-started rather, business she gave it to me straight. “Just do it!” she said so here I am writing my first post ever and debuting it on doughmesstic.com what a way to start!

Speaking of new starts a lot of beginnings are occurring in my life. My long time boyfriend and kitty Bearlios finally moved closer to school and our jobs (we lived a half hour away before), and went from an apartment that was 700 square feet to a whopping 1200 square feet! Ironically it took some getting used to the big space and we restricted ourselves to the smaller areas of the house for a while. I think it’s always hard to move and even harder to make it feel like home until you break the kitchen in.

So let’s get down to the food! This weekend I took a break from my work and decided to fix a random snack that turned out to be so good I couldn’t keep it to myself. Nutella and strawberry paninis on whole wheat. Before I got on I just have to say, the rich chocolate hazelnut spread and the slightly tart and sweet strawberries are truly a match made in heaven. They just go. Nutella is one of my all time favorite things in the entire universe. I usually have an $8 jar of it on hand at all times. I ate it by the spoonful this weekend at 3am, I made sandwiches with it, I mixed it into my coffee, and I even poured some almond milk into the jar and shook it up to get the last scraps before I mixed the concoction into the dry ingredients for my pancakes this morning. I can’t and never will get enough of it. But when it’s melty…

Oh when it’s melty.

I bet you want to know how to make it don’t you? It’s so easy you’re not going to believe it. I had a Panini press that I inherited from the gentleman who let me take over the lease at the apartment we lived in previously, but if you don’t have one just cook it in a sauté pan and weight the sandwich down with a big pot or something-who cares!

A slightly different variation on this sandwich is drizzling the bread with neutral oil and toasting it or pressing it, then smearing nutella on it while it’s still hot, and topping with fresh sliced strawberries. This way you can cut it into smaller portions and serve it as a little snack at parties and it’s beautiful.

Nutella and Strawberry Panini

Serves 4

8 slices Whole wheat bread 8 slices
1/2 cup Nutella, or as needed
1 cup Strawberries, hulled & sliced
Vegetable oil as needed

Method:

1. Lay two slices down for each serving and spread one side of one slice with 2 Tbsp. of the Nutella.

2. Layer enough strawberries to cover the Nutella and top with the other slice of bread.

3. Drizzle the outside of the sandwich with the oil and press for about 5 minutes in a panini press or weighted down in a sauté pan until the bread is golden brown and the Nutella is slightly melted.

4. Slice on a bias and serve garnished with whole strawberries.