Panini are small, filled, bread rolls, which are sometimes toasted. They are Italian in origin, but now found in other countries.
In Italy, panino (Italian pronunciation: [paˈniːno]) is the word for a sandwich made with a bread roll. Sandwiches there are customarily made from a roll or loaf of bread, typically a ciabatta or a rosetta. The loaf is cut horizontally and filled with salami, ham, cheese, mortadella, or other food, and sometimes served warm after having been pressed by a warming grill. A toasted sandwich made from sliced bread is not called 'panino' but 'pane in cassetta' by Italians, and is usually filled with prosciutto and a few slices of cheese, grilled in a sandwich press. A popular version of panino in Central Italy is filled with porchetta, i.e. slices of pork roasted with garlic, salt, rosemary, and sage.
In the USA and Canada, the term "panini" refers to any pressed and toasted sandwich; there is widespread availability and use of sandwich presses, often known as "panini presses."
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The word panino [pa'ni:no] is Italian for "small bread roll"; its plural form is panini. The word is the diminutive form of pane (bread). Outside Italy, panini is often used as a singular word (like salami, also an Italian plural noun) and sometimes pluralized as paninis.
In Italian, panino refers properly to a bread roll and a panino imbottito (stuffed panino) to a sandwich. A paninoteca is the word for a sandwich bar.
Panino is also often used to refer to sandwiches in general.
Although the first U.S. reference to panini dates to 1956, and a precursor appeared in a 16th-century Italian cookbook, the sandwiches became trendy in Milanese bars, called paninoteche, in the 1970s and 1980s. Trendy U.S. restaurants, particularly in New York, began selling panini, whose popularity then spread to other U.S. cities, each producing distinctive variations of it.[1]
During the 1980s, the term paninaro (slang for a maker and seller of panini, or his shop), was extended to its patrons, as well. It was used to denote a youngsters' culture typical of teenagers supposed to eat and meet in sandwich bars such as Milan's Al Panino and then in the first US-style fast food opened in Italy. Paninari were depicted as fashion-fixated, vain individuals, delighting in showcasing early 1980s status symbols such as Timberland shoes, Moncler accessories, Ray-Ban sunglasses and articles from Armani, Coveri, Controvento. So they were lampooned in the Italia 1 comedy show Drive-in by Enzo Braschi. A track entitled "Paninaro" appears on Pet Shop Boys' albums Disco and Alternative.