Toasted Tramezzini Rolls with Egg, Mint, Sun-Dried Tomato & Ricotta
Tramezzini- exclusive-sounding Italian "Wonderbread"! I often used to wonder why this stuff even exists- and trust me, in day-to-day life, you don't need to be buying and using this kind of processed white bread... but for caterers, or for yourselves, when making snack-food- it is indeed a useful commodity!
The "good" thing about it, is simply the size and the thinness and the evenness of these long, thin slices of soft white bread, that allow you to roll and shape it in many ways. I am not a fan of it when used to make regular sandwiches, but if it is toasted, baked or fried, it CAN be a fun thing to use every now and again... as long as you use your imagination with it too!
I picked up a pack of Tramezzini at the Italian section of the supermarket recently, knowing I would be able to think of something cool to make with those soft, thin slices some day. And this morning I had an idea for something that would be a great Summertime party treat- and decided to try it out for my breakfast to see how it would work...
...fortunately it worked really, really well!
For my little experiment and the 2 rolls it yielded, I needed 2 slices of Tramezzini bread, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of fresh Ricotta, a little fresh mint and a couple of sun-dried tomatoes... that's pretty simple mathematics if you want to make these in quantities ;-)
My inspiration for the filling of this sandwich-roll was again, my all time favorite breakfast combination of egg, mint and sun-dried tomatoes, as my mother used to use to make the savory Sicilian "French toast" I used to love as a child.
Back then, mama would use thick slices of stale bread, into which she would poke mint and ground dried tomatoes, then dip them into egg and fry them up for breakfast- although this only happened every couple of months or so at the most! Which made it all the more of a treat of course! And made this into a wonderfully nostalgic combination of flavors for me for ever more! I just love it!
Whilst the eggs boiled, for 10 minutes or so, I had plenty of time to finely chop the mint and finely slice the tomatoes.
It took only one half of a tomato and 5-6 leaves of mint to flavor each roll.
Once the eggs were boiled, I cooled them in cold water, cracked, peeled and diced them and added them to the Ricotta, along with a good pinch of pepper. I didn't add any salt as the sun-dried tomatoes are salty enough to season everything nicely on their own.
Making sure to not over-fill the sandwiches and keeping clear of the edges to prevent the filling from seeping out, I spread out the egg and Ricotta mix and sprinkled it generously and evenly with mint and sun-dried tomato.
I carefully rolled up the Tramezzini and laid it onto a square of cling-film...
... and then twisted the ends of the transparent wrap until the sandwich-roll was nicely and tightly wrapped. Simple!
Starting with the ends of the roll facing down, I gently fried the roll in just a few drops of olive oil until it became crispy and golden brown, then revolved the roll to get it browned-off from all sides.
I chose to use just a little olive oil, to keep the flavor Mediterranean and more authentic tasting than the typical, buttery breakfast fare.
And there you have it! Crispy and golden on the outside, soft, white and flavorful with the egg, mint and tomato on the inside- what's not to love?
And a couple more tricks with Tramezzini are yet to come- I have a couple of slices left over! Haha!
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