Courgette, Mushroom and Pesto Panino

Languages behave in different ways, English absorbs, accepts, uses and discards new words every day. English bilingual dictionaries proudly display a large English section compared to the other language.

Courgette Mushroom and Pesto Panino

Now French is a language which  relies on structures. Grammar is rigid, uncompromising. There is only one right way, get it wrong and a crime is committed.
 
So when it comes to foreign words we hit a world of confusion. For most people, it may not matter greatly but if you were born French and worked for decades with languages then a simple recipe can create havoc, even before looking at the ingredients.
 
A couple of month ago, I was very fortunate to find a last century practical encyclopedia of healing food, for 50p in a charity shop. Among hundreds of recipes it contains a recipe for what looked like a kind of Pain Bagnat. Having a particular fondness for Pains Bagnats, stuffed breads, originating from Nice. I was readying myself for a 5 minutes enjoyment reading the recipe when suddenly brain did a double take on the title.
 
This is a Courgette, Mushroom and Pesto (so far so good) Panino. I knew of panini and if when in a state of starvation or in the position when choice was required paninis (plural) but it never occurred to me that I was incorrectly using the word. Then "salami", raised its ugly head, should that be "salamo".
 
Drop the newly bought ancient encyclopedia with a thump and grab the fablette to get to Wikipedia which revealed that, "In some English- and French-speaking countries, panini is sometimes used as a singular word (like salami also an Italian plural noun) and sometimes incorrectly pluralized as paninis."
 
But it gets worse, "In Italian, panino refers properly to a bread roll and panino imbottito (stuffed panino) to a sandwich.....Panino is also often used to refer to a sandwich in general."
 
Now utterly confused, words had deserted me. So here is a picture step by step
 
Courgette, Mushroom and Pesto Panino









For this recipe, you'll need:
1 small round loaf
3 courgettes
3 tablespoon olive oil
250g small round mushrooms
1 tsp oregano
3 tbsp pesto
50g gr salad
250g Taleggio cheese ( which I didn't use in my recipe)
salt and pepper to season




4 comments:

Phil in the Kitchen said...

Well, whatever it's called, this is definitely my kind of dish.
By the way, I wouldn't disagree that written French has quite a rigid grammar. I'm not quite so convinced about spoken French. I suppose that depends on to whom you are speaking.

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

Oh don't tell me, everything goes to pot LOL.
I think you are right, structures often apply to the written words only. But mistakes will be spotted and as we know French people adore picking on others.
Let me know if you get to make a panino or even panini

Karen S Booth said...

What's in a name? This looks absolutely amazing and I would be happy to be served this Solange! Karen

Solange Berchemin of Pebble Soup said...

Anytime Karen.

si

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