1. I could have put tomatoes in there, but they have a tendency to grab and hold on to the heat, turning them into little napalm nuggets which are very child-unfriendly.
2. If you don’t have Kalamata olives, use another kind or leave them out. But please, please, please don’t use those canned black formaldehyde ‘olives’ that look and taste like they came off a factory assembly line. Or, if you do, don’t ever tell me. (Olives are one thing I allow myself to get ‘food-snobby’ about.)
3. If you can’t find ready-made panini bread, buy some of those ‘bake at home’ baguettes and cut them in half so they fit on your grill. You don’t need to bake them (they’re already half-baked anyway), as they’ll cook on the grill. Use them as you would panini bread. You could, of course, just use regular sliced bread and make these into toasties.
4. If you don’t have a panini grill/sandwich press, you can still make these. Just heat up a large skillet, brush lightly with oil and put a sandwich on there. Use another large (and heavy) skillet or saucepan on top to press it down. Flip when it’s halfway done.
5. If the power of suggestion is strong with you too, and you’re thinking you need to go buy a grill, then I suggest you get one that has removable grill plates. Makes washing up oh so much easier. Mine has four different kinds of plates you can swap out (one set does waffles – yum). It’s great but it’s small, and only does one panino at a time. It was fine when there were just two of us, but now we are four it might be time to upgrade…