Best Damn Sandwich: Calabrese Market and Deli, week oneDate: 5/7/2019 WEST SPRINGFIELD – This week’s best damn sandwich entails a review of a mouth watering eggplant parmesan panini from Calabrese Market and Deli located at 54 Park St. in West Springfield.
I had never been to Calabrese before but I immediately put it on my list of places I need to go again as soon as I walked in. Shelves line the walls, filled with authentic homemade pastas, sauces, olive oils, condiments, herbs and spices. The refrigerators are filled with premade pasta dishes, desserts and italian sodas and juices.
As I made my way around the shop I was so pleased to see metal containers full of different types and flavors of olive oil with small samples of bread to try them with.
The experience as soon as you walk in gives visitors a genuine Italian family market feeling.
I traveled to southern Italy this past summer. The lay out and feeling I got upon walking into Calabrese brought me right back to the month I spent in Italy visiting family markets.
After looking around and exploring the shop, my colleagues and I decided it was time to tackle their extensive sandwich menu and make our lunch choices.
For me, it was a no brainer, as soon as I saw The Melanzana which was described as, “Eggplant house made egg battered, pan fried, drizzled in our San Marzano tomato sauce and mozzarella.” I ordered that as a panini but their sandwiches are also all offered on a water roll or half a baguette.
As I unwrapped my sandwich, the smell of basil, garlic and fresh bread was so overwhelming and delicious I couldn’t wait to dive in. The panini was toasted to perfection, it left the bread with a slight crunch around the outside but still soft in the center. The tomato sauce on the sandwich had a fresh flavor of garlic and basil. Their was just enough on it to give it the flavor it needed without making the sandwich soggy. The pan fried eggplant had a crunch to it from being fried, but was not overly breaded, I still felt like I was eating a vegetable. The eggplant also had a more firm constancy without getting too soft, which was satisfactory. The mozzarella cheese was melted over the sauce and eggplant, and was aesthetically pleasing when I pulled apart the two halves of my sandwich and saw the melted cheese pull apart as well. This sandwich was a 10/10 for me and I cannot wait to order it again.
Calabrese Market and Deli is open Monday through Friday 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Their menu and other information about the shop can be found on their website, https://www.calabresemarketma.com/. I absolutely recommend our readers check Calabrese out and either get an amazing homemade pasta dish or a one of a kind sandwich!
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