A taste of Tampa

When we lived in Tampa, one of our favorite indulgences was a Cuban sandwich. In fact, we had a weekend tradition to have lunch at Wright's with another couple whenever possible (which was pretty much every weekend), and the husband would almost always order a Cuban. If you are ever in Tampa, you seriously have to go to Wright's. It is mouth-watering, and you absolutely MUST buy one of their slices of cake. You will not regret it.

The other night when I was perusing All Recipes, I came across a recipe for a Cuban sandwich and decided it would make the perfect week night meal. I ended up using my own recipe rather than the one that was posted (for some reason it called for Italian dressing?), but it came out really well!

I just layered fresh (and very thinly sliced) ham, turkey, swiss and dill pickles on a French bread made by Pepperidge Farm. It wasn't your usual French bread, it was more of a hoagie really, but I imagine this bread would be easy to find. Then I spread mustard on one side and light mayo on the other. I then sliced the loaf into fourths.



Excuse the next two pictures, which were taken with my phone, but then I heated the sandwich on the stove over VERY low heat (we have a gas burner and it was turned to 2). I used another pan's lid to press down on the bread panini style. I'd say it cooked for about 10 minutes on each side.



The end result was perfectly toasted and crunchy bread filled with goodness. I always thought you'd need a panini press or something fancy to get that perfect crunch, but I have to say that this came out really, really well.

The husband devoured it, too! I think this will make it into our dinner rotation because it's fairly cheap, extremely easy and super filling. Plus, it reminds us of Tampa, which is even better!