Top 3 Italian Sandwich Types

Tramezzino is a popular Italian triangular sandwich made with chewy, crustless white bread and various fillings such as mayonnaise, tuna, prosciutto, and cheese. It is believed that the first tramezzino was invented in 1925 at Caffè Mulassano in Turin. It soon became incredibly popular, especially in Venice, where it's often enjoyed with a glass of Spritz. Today, there are numerous varieties of tramezzini, and they can be found in cafés throughout Italy, although pre-packed varieties that can be bought in supermarkets are also quite common. Coined by Gabriele D'Annunzio, the name tramezzino is a diminutive of the term tramezzo, which refers to a period between breakfast and lunch. Expand

Panuozzo di Gragnano is an Italian sandwich, a sort of large oval-shaped bread or panino that can be filled with various ingredients. It was in 1983, in a small town near Naples called Gragnano, that this specialty was created by Giuseppe Mascolo, whose family has been the exclusive owner of the registered trademark Panuozzo since 1996. Made with simple pizza dough, the bread is baked in a wood-fired pizza oven, and it is then sliced lengthwise before all the desired ingredients are tucked inside. Then comes the final touch - a second, brief time spent in the oven - a step which gives the bread its distinctive crispy exterior and allows for the filling to blend perfectly with the bread. Although the original filling consisted of pancetta, mozzarella, and arugula (rocket), nowadays, the choice for panuozzo stuffing is limitless, offering a wide range of both savory and sweet stuffings depending on the customer's choice. Typical ingredients include different varieties of Italian cheese such as provolone, smoked buffalo mozzarella, or Grana Padano, Italian meat products, polpette (meatballs), mushrooms, salsiccia and friarielli (sausage and broccoli rabe), and vegetables, while the sweet versions usually contain Nutella, gelato, nuts, and powdered sugar.Expand

Panonta is a multi-layered sandwich that’s one mammoth of a meal given it’s made with a large loaf of homemade bread, which is sliced, then brushed with bacon grease or lard, and layered with various ingredients, typically fried bacon, sausages, peppers, frittata, grated cheese, garlic, and parsley. The sandwich is present in Abruzzo, Molise, and parts of Lazio, while the name comes from the phrase pane unto, meaning greased bread. It was created for practical reasons so that shepherds and farmers had something easy to carry that could sustain them while working long and hard in the mountains or the countryside. As far as variations go, the one from the town of Miranda is especially popular and prized. Expand