Back in December I went on the trip of a lifetime throughout Italy. Some of you may remember my adventures, but if you are new to a day from scratch let me give you a quick recap. One of my dear friends, Erin, was living in Rome teaching English. So while she was living there I took advantage of the opportunity and went to visit her. We rented a little smart car and road tripped all throughout the beautiful country from Rome, to Florence, to Cinque Terre, to Varenna on Lake Como, to Sienna and back to Rome. It was incredible! You can catch up on the 6 part series starting here.

As we traveled from city to city in our smart car, or as we referred to her as “Smarty” we would stop at little travel stops along the way to break up the trip. The first day out we were so starving that we each decided to order a sandwich and gab about how excited we were to be hitting the Italian roads together. What I didn’t know was that I was about to fall in love, with a little flatbread sandwich called a  “Pane Bufalino.” Now this isn’t any ordinary sandwich, it is made of buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto and arugula then pressed on a hot press between to thick flatbreads. Holy goodness, I still dream of that little baby!

I have made my own version of this “pane” multiple times, but today I decided to take a little bit different of an approach.

 

I decided to use some homemade Naan bread then topped it with marscapone cheese, arugula and sliced Italian genoa salami. This, may not be exactly like I had it in Italy, but boy oh boy is it gooood!

 

Stopping to get these little sandwiches became somewhat of a daily venture.

My favorite thing about stopping and getting the Bufalino while on our road trip was that we sat and talked about the fabulous food and wine we were indulging in. From the Coliseum and Vatican in Rome to the fishing boats in Cinque Terre we saw it all. It was our time to take in the beauty of where we had just been and bracing ourselves for the excitement of the next town.

 

And my favorite thing about making this version today in my own kitchen in Austin Tx, was that it took me right back to Italy! I can’t wait to go back someday and you can bet your boots I’ll be finding myself a Bufalino!

Ingredients: makes 1 bufalino

Naan bread, or 1 flatbread of your choice

1-2 Tbsp Marscapone cheese

1/2 cup arugula

3-4 slices of Italian ham of your choice

Recipe:

On the cooked flatbread, spread the marscapone cheese. Then layer the arugula and the Italian ham on top. Fold the bread over and to a hot skillet sear on each side for about 1-2 minutes per side.

Picture yourself on an Italian road-trip and enjoy!