Cuban Sandwiches!

My boyfriend cooked Cuban sandwiches for dinner tonight and they did not disappoint!

He started out by mixing some mayonnaise with whole grain mustard and then adding chunks of butter to it, which he smeared on the inside of the two halves of split French bread.

Then, he laid the bread with the inside, buttered side down on what he calls a "flat-top" but most people would call an electric griddle.  The bread got nice and toasty!

Next, he laid down rows of sliced pork tenderloin (which he had roasted up just before all this), layered cappicola (a cured meat with paprika coating the outside - see pics) on top of his pork, then covered all that with gruyère cheese.  He asked me to put the pickles on top while he kept layering his rows of meat and cheese on the "flat-top."

After all that was nice and hot, he carefully scooped the meat/cheese/pickles onto the previously toasted bread.  Ideally, these sandwiches would have gone into a panini press, but he had to improvise and used a cookie sheet and some weight to smash the sandwiches onto the griddle (which was covered in non-stick cooking spray).  Had he had a panini press, he wouldn't have had to flip the sandwiches over and repeat the process.

Then, he cut each sandwich diagonally, which made them look pretty, but in my opinion also made them easier to grab and eat!

And since I realize I haven't explained all this very clearly, I offer you my pictures!

Delicioso!  This is one of my two favorite sandwiches of all time!