Sandwich season is here

Let’s make this the summer of the sandwich. Let’s serve them for dinner. Let’s wrap them in tinfoil and take them to the beach, to the park, to the playground, on a hike. Let’s lavish BLTs with extra mayonnaise, let’s smear baguettes with softened butter and pile on thinly sliced ham, let’s make tuna salad sandwiches on soft buns crowned with a mountain of shredded iceberg lettuce. A great sandwich is a complete meal.

My SOS (sandwich of summer) looks to Sardinia, Italy, where chickpea panelle are a popular street food. Panelle are fritters made from a simple batter of chickpea flour and water that’s cooked on the stove top until thick, cooled, then cut into squares and fried until crispy. In Sardinia, the panelle are served solo, seasoned only with salt and a squeeze of lemon, or sandwiched into soft buns.

It’s a wonderful miracle that a combination of chickpea flour and water alone can make something this delicious. I add a bit of salt and pepper to the batter, along with chopped basil (though you could use parsley), but nothing more: Simplicity is the order of the day.

If you spread the batter into a larger pan and cut it into thinner rectangles, panelle are an excellent snack to serve alongside a chilled bottle of Grecanico Bianca, or another Sicilian white. But if you want to go the sandwich route, do what I do here and spread the batter into an 8inch square pan. Once chilled, turn the dough out onto a cutting board (it’ll hold together, much like chilled polenta), cut into 4 squares, and fry in hot oil until golden brown and crisp.

I like to use a soft, rich bread, like focaccia, for these sandwiches, and spread both sides of the bread generously with a good amount of mayonnaise I’ve gussied up with lemon juice and coarsely cracked pepper. I stack on a fritter, top it with a few slices of juicy tomato and some basil. But you could add mozzarella, if you wish, or some grilled eggplant or peppers, some dressed greens, a drizzle of chile oil. But I suggest you make them now: With just weeks until Labor Day, there’s no time to waste.

Jessica Battilana Panelle, basically a chickpea fritter, is a summerperfect sandwich filling.