A ham and fontina cheese Panini slathered with mustard flavored with blackberries and rosemary is a wonderful twist on a traditional ham and cheese sandwich. A few weeks ago one of my friends brought us a Honey Baked Ham. We used to eat Honey Baked Hams all the time when I was younger and I just love the crunchy sweet coating of honey that frames each slice.
I had some ham leftover and I wanted to make some sandwiches, but not just any sandwich. I wanted something different. For cheese I picked Fontina because I love how rich and creamy it is when melted. I had some blackberries that were dangerously close to turning into a fuzzy science project so I decided to make a blackberry mustard. I wanted to use a herb for more flavor and I chose Rosemary which next to sage is my favorite herb to use during the wintry months. The result was a hearty and delicious sandwich that is great by itself or paired with a bowl of soup. And with the gorgeous color of the mustard, it looks really pretty too.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!
Ham Panini with Blackberry Mustard
Ingredients
- 8 slices Italian or French Bread
- 1 pound sliced ham
- 1 cup shredded Fontina cheese
- 2-3 tablespoons butter,, softened
Blackberry Mustard
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
- To make Blackberry Mustard, combine blackberries, Dijon mustard, sugar, honey, rosemary, and cayenne in a small saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring and mashing blackberries with the back of a spoon, until mixture comes to a boil.
- In a small bowl, mix together vinegar and cornstarch. Add to blackberry mixture. Stir to combine. Let mixture simmer for about 30 seconds and remove from heat.
- Spread some butter on 1 side of each piece of bread.
- Spread the other side of 4 pieces of bread with blackberry mustard.
- Divide the shredded cheese on the non-buttered side of the remaining slices. Top with ham and the blackberry mustard coated slices.
- Heat a Panini grill and grill sandwiches one at a time until cheese is melted. Alternately you can use a griddle or nonstick skillet.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My husband doesn’t really care for mustard, but I had to try this after picking blackberries this morning. I only had whole wheat bread and Swiss cheese for our grilled ham and Swiss! Also, I halved the recipe. It still made a lot!
How long can one store the Blackberry Mustard in the fridge? Sounds like a great homemade Christmas gift for my siblings.
This looks amazing! How long can we keep the Jam mustard for?
Ham and cheese is the best sandwich! especially when the cheese is melty 🙂 I love the addition of balsamic and rosemary here…mmmm!
I can totally go for one of these right about now as a midnight snack! 🙂 Looks amazing and I love that blackberry mustard. Delicious! 🙂
Saw this on Tasteologie and couldn’t get my mind off it so I called my husband running errands and asked him for the goods – it was amazing!!!!
Great job!
So glad you enjoyed it Hanna! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Christin, Your ham panini brought up a memory from long ago. Your Mom would often bring a Honey Baked Ham to the beach back when Charlotte was one of the few places that sold them. I remember being slightly horrified when Ken and Logan would race around the cottage trailing what seemed like several feet of ham behind them as I thought it was a special treat to be slowly savored! Love, Aunt Jean
I always associate Honey Baked Hams with beach trips Aunt Jean! I think that was the only time we ever had them!
Fontina is my FAVORITE cheese of all time! I’d love to try this sometime…