The Italian sandwich is built on subtraction. Where other countries stack, the panino names one thing and gets out of its way: prosciutto di Parma and bread, mortadella and bread, a wedge of pecorino and bread. The catalog of 427 is really a catalog of Italian larders, region by region, each protected denomination getting its own treatment between two pieces of the local loaf.
The bread is itself a regional map. Romagna folds a piadina; Liguria splits a focaccia; Tuscany tears a schiacciata; Puglia hollows a puccia; the Veneto trims the crust off a soft tramezzino; Rome stuffs a triangular trapizzino; Palermo soaks a roll in spleen and lard. The filling changes by province and the bread changes with it, and the two are not interchangeable.
The categories below capture how the V5 catalog actually sorts. The largest by far are the salume panino and the cheese panino, the two halves of the Italian deli counter. Around them sit the regional flatbreads, the Veneto tramezzino, the Florentine offal roll, the Sicilian street fryer, and the long tail of place-named panini. Below the anchors, the full filterable catalog lets you browse every entry by name or category.
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The Tramezzino
The Venetian bar sandwich: crustless soft white bread, a domed bound filling, cut on the diagonal and stacked under glass with a glass of wine. · 38 sandwiches
The Piadina Romagnola
Romagna's thin unleavened griddle flatbread, folded hot around squacquerone, prosciutto, salame or greens. · 20 sandwiches
Focaccia
The Ligurian oiled flatbread split and filled, from the dimpled Genovese to the cheese-thin Recco and the tall oily Barese. · 14 sandwiches
Tigelle, Crescia & Gnocco Fritto
The Emilian and central Apennine breads split or fried for salumi: tigelle discs, gnocco fritto pillows, piadina's cousins crescia and borlengo. · 24 sandwiches
The Trapizzino
The modern Roman pocket: a triangle of pizza-bianca dough opened and filled with a spoonful of a classic Roman braise. · 8 sandwiches
Puccia & the Southern Flatbreads
The hollowed and crisp breads of the South and the islands: Salento's puccia, Sardinia's pane carasau, Puglia's frisella, the Calabrian pitta. · 16 sandwiches
Sicilian & Southern Street Food
Palermo and Naples on the street: pani câ meusa, panelle and crocchè, sfincione, the fried roll bought from a stall and eaten standing. · 14 sandwiches
Lampredotto & the Florentine Offal Roll
Florence's tripe stand: the fourth stomach simmered, sliced, the cut roll dunked in its broth and hit with salsa verde. · 7 sandwiches
Panino con Porchetta
The roast-pork panino of central Italy: deboned pig, herb-and-fennel stuffed, slow-roasted, sliced with its crackling onto plain bread. · 6 sandwiches
Mozzarella in Carrozza & the Italian Toast
The fried and the pressed cheese sandwich: mozzarella battered and fried in its carriage, and the bar toast of ham and cheese. · 6 sandwiches
Schiacciata & Pizza Bianca
The flat oven breads of Tuscany and Rome split for salumi: the olive-oil schiacciata, the blistered Roman pizza bianca, the grilled fettunta. · 12 sandwiches
Panino con Pesce & Conserve
The preserved-sea panino: tuna, bottarga, baccalà mantecato, Piedmontese and Ligurian anchovy, sardines in saor. · 12 sandwiches
Panino con Formaggio
Italy's cheese counter between bread: Parmigiano and pecorino, gorgonzola, the fresh mozzarella and burrata, the Alpine and island wheels. · 60 sandwiches
Panino con Salume
The cured-meat panino, Italy's deli counter: prosciutto, mortadella, salame, 'nduja, capocollo, culatello, bresaola, speck, lardo. · 71 sandwiches
Alto Adige & the Germanic North
The Tyrol and Friuli's Germanic shelf: speck on Schüttelbrot, the Brezel, canederli, Kaminwurzen, the strudel and Zelten sweets. · 12 sandwiches
Panino con Verdure
The vegetable panino: grilled and marinated vegetables, parmigiana, friarielli, caponata, peperoni cruschi, pesto and the vegetarian build. · 20 sandwiches
The Dish in a Panino
A regional cooked dish folded into bread: vitello tonnato, cassoeula, ossobuco, ragù napoletano, polpette, bollito, saltimbocca. · 23 sandwiches
The Panuozzo
Gragnano's baked pizza-dough sandwich: a length of bread dough oven-baked, split, filled, and returned to the oven to crisp. · 1 sandwich
The Gourmet & Modern Panino
The contemporary paninoteca and the immigrant street: burrata and crudo, beef tartare, truffle, the kebab and falafel, the Italian wrap. · 11 sandwiches
The Crostino
The Italian open-face toast: a small slice of bread under chicken-liver pâté, truffle, or a regional topping, eaten in a bite or two. · 2 sandwiches
The Regional & Everyday Panino
The place-named panino and the bread itself: the city-by-city panini and the rosetta, michetta, ciabatta and pagnotta they are built on. · 50 sandwiches