There’s a particular kind of hunger that only a proper Italian sandwich bar can satisfy: the smell of fresh bread, the display of cured meats and cheeses waiting to be layered together, and someone behind the counter asking what you’d like in your panino. A visit to the paninoteca is one of those small, everyday pleasures that can make a day feel a little richer.
In Paninoteca brings together the Italian words you’d actually see and use there: the breads, the fillings, the cheeses and the little decisions that go into creating the perfect panino.
The words are already in Italian, so there’s no translating to do first. Simply find each one hidden in the grid, reading left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top or diagonally.
If you’d like the English meanings too, you’ll find the full list further down the page.
Divertiti! 😊
A memory tucked inside this word 🥖
Mollica is the soft inside of the bread, hidden beneath the crunchy crosta. Bread has such a constant presence at an Italian table, at lunch, at dinner, always there, that we even have separate words for these two different textures.
I have a lovely childhood memory connected to mollica. My nonna lived with us, and by the time she was in her eighties, she'd lost many of her teeth and could no longer chew the crust. Whenever we shared a piece of focaccia (or coccoi, the traditional Sardinian bread), I'd happily eat the crunchy crosta and give her all the mollica. We were both convinced we'd got the better deal.
This puzzle also holds a completely different memory, one that has nothing to do with mollica or nonna. Years before I built this word search, I had a summer job in a London sandwich bar: a confusing menu, sausage rolls that nearly defeated me, and a lot of language lessons I didn't expect. You can read the full story, Anyone Can Make a Panino.
If a real Italian bar sounds more appealing than a London sandwich counter, my Al bar crossword is there whenever you fancy it.
