Panino Con La Mortadella Fritta
Sounds fancy, eh? OK, then let’s stick with that instead of calling this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday what it really is: a fried bologna sandwich. With senape!
Have you ever had un panino con la mortadella fritta? Even if you don’t normally like bologna, I highly recommend finding the best sliced mortadella you can, tearing it up into smaller pieces, frying it in a pan (no oil, just a hot pan), and then slapping it on a fresh Italian roll. Oh, and add mustard.
My grandmother used to make these whenever we wanted a substantial snack but didn’t know what else to eat. P had never had one of these babies before I came along — and yes, he turned up his nose at first. But then the smell of frying mortadella got to him. He rarely has a “raw” mortadella panino now.
And even though you have to turn the stove on, frying doesn’t take very long so this ends up being a super easy summer treat around here.
Oh, and while we’re talking sandwiches/panini, be sure to check out Sara’s (Ms Adventures in Italy) explanation of the difference between a panino in Italiano and a panino in America at Panini Happy. Great stuff!
Buon appetito!
18 Beans of Wisdom to “Panino Con La Mortadella Fritta”
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
Calabria Guidebook
Recipes
Had fried baloney and eggs prepared by an old Lithuanian lady many years ago, but never mortadella. Mortadella just sounds like it would be better!
Hmmm I wonder if my Lithuanian grandfather had a hand in that bologna-frying of my grandmother then? 😉
These are the best when you’re really hungry. It hits the spot.
Happy Wednesday!
Couldn’t agree more, Bella! Thanks for coming by 🙂
We grew up eating fried bologna with mustard in our household! Unfortunately it wasn’t mortadella (Kahn’s sliced instead!) but still one of my favorite foods. Definitely going to try upping our game with mortadella and an Italian roll!
Hope you like it Micheline!
Fried mortadella? Huh? Gotta try that!
Enjoy!
I remember my mother making fried bologna sandwiches. I rarely buy lunch meat now except for the occasional pepperoni for pizza, prosciutto for cooking or salami or capocollo because I like it. After reading this though, I feel like a fried bologna sandwich, with some good Dijon mustard.
Mmmm now you have me hungry mentioning all those goodies 😉
I’ve got to try this…maybe tonight.
Hope you like it FH!
gotta try it one day, no different then fried bacon or pancetta, right?
Same principle indeed, Lucy! Hope you enjoy 🙂
I love these!! I used to make them regularly on the busy weekends for hubby and I and our growing children thirty years ago and sooner! Over time, I subtracted the plump juicy sandwiches to a more “lean” cuisine lunch faire in California.
I see it is time to bring them to the dinner table tonight in celebration of their rebirth in this new generation of the “empty-nest-syndrome” where I don’t have to share “bites” of mine and hubby will have his own too!!
Thank you Michelle~Buon Appitito* xoxo
Haha, now you can enjoy them in a whole new way, Debra!
What? It’s 10pm and now I’m hungry? How’d that happen?
The danger of reading blogs before bed!
Oddly enough, both my very Italian Grandmother and my most un-Italian Father used to make fried O-S-C-A-R M-E-Y-E-R sandwiches as a little kid. Being a little kid, I didn’t like mustard, so a little mayo was good too. I just started doing it with ‘real’ mortadella for my own kids, I had forgotten how good they are…
I forgot these for a while too…was great to rediscover 🙂
Wow, that looks so good and easy to make too! I’m definitely giving it a try!!
Hope you like it Jane!
we used to fry Bologna… Delicious.
Yay another fried bologna fan 🙂
Haha yes it sounds more fancy than fried bologna. My daughter loves eating it by the handful. You are right, makes a quick summer lunch.
Is it just as hot there as it is here?
uuufff, off to the store to make hubby some panino con la mortadella fritta. for me only cheese and bread.
Yes, very hot here; I’m ready for a little break in temps 🙂
GNAM!! That sounds delicious!! I love mortadella (prefer it to prosciutto), will definitely try it!
Enjoy!
What do you think? Yellow mustard or Dijon?
I’m sure either would work depending on your taste, but I’ve always used yellow (there is no Dijon in Italy).
how funny- my husbands cousin who had a restaurant made a mortadella “steak”.
He panfried it- and when it was hot, topped with cheese.
YUMMY!
I adore mortadella- when I was a kid- I used to spread bologna with mayo and just roll it up!
Mortadella steak…hmm…. 😉
Oscar Meyer yes! Isn’t it wonderful when old favorites get updated, like my husband’s favorite tuna noodle casserole made with real albacore tuna and homemade mushroom soup? Will look for mortadella right away. Thanks!
Mmm now I want tuna casserole, which we *never* had growing up in my house. I made it for myself during college, and YUM!
This is a dangerous post for a pregnant woman! I’ve never even thought of frying up mortadella but it looks sooo good. I guess I know what I’m having for lunch today. Darn you!!!
Hahaha I should really put disclaimers on some of these, eh? 😉