From Serious Eats:

- makes 2 sandwiches -
Adapted from Panini Express by Daniel Leader and Lauren Chattman.

Ingredients

4 half-inch-thick slices country hearth bread or 2 six-inch lengths baguette
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
3 ounces Emmentaler cheese, thinly sliced
6 small cornichons, coarsely chopped
4 quarter-inch-thick slices (about 4 ounces) baked country ham

Procedure

1. Heat a sandwich press according to manufacturer’s instructions. Meanwhile, spread each piece of bread on one side with 1 1/2 teaspoons butter. (If going the baguette route, skip this step.)

2. Put the bread, buttered sides down, on a cutting board and spread 1 1/2 teaspoons of mustard on two slices. Top each with some cheese. Sprinkle the chopped cornichons on top of cheese. Arrange the ham on top of the cornichons. Top each sandwich with the remaining bread slices, buttered side up.

3. Place the sandwiches on the press, and pull the top down. Cook until sandwiches are browned and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on heat of your press. Remove from press and serve immediately.

Notes

• Make sure you do thinly slice the cheese. My slices were a bit thick the first time I made this sandwich, and the cheese failed to melt evenly.
• I used baguette for this sandwich, but I’d recommend the country hearth bread, as the thick baguette threw off the crucial bread-to-filling ratio.

I don’t mean to sound braggy, but I’ve got a pretty good internal database of ingredients and what they translate into… but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what a cornichon was. Thank God for Wikipedia. Would it have really been so hard to say that they’re freaking pickles?