Surely you didn’t think “cheese sandwich” meant this:
plus this:
Did you? Have you met me?
Bien sur, this is what I grew up on. This was a cheese sandwich. And I’m not too good for it today either. But if I’m going to eat carbs (and I most definitely am), I want the good stuff.
Jacques’ version is on bread he calls a “Small Light Country Loaf,” for which there is a recipe in the book, but he also tells you that it’s similar to ciabatta. Say no more, store-bought ciabatta it is!
In between is salsa, Gorgonzola cheese, watercress, pecan halves, cucumber, gruyere, pepper and mushrooms. Although it may diminish me to admit it, I do not like bleu cheese, so I subbed goat cheese. I also took the liberty of toasting the pecans and roughly chopping them (I almost never use un-toasted nuts in anything. They are so much nuttier after a few minutes in the oven or in a dry skillet stove-top). I also left off the mushrooms because they seemed really out of place.
It was delish.
I love sandwiches for dinner and I’m always looking for new combinations. Why I can’t think them up on my own, I have no idea (for instance, I would never, in a million years, put salsa, pecans and cucumber together like this.) So I love when there’s a “sandwich” section in a cookbook and someone is willing to do the creative heavy lifting for me.
Cheese Sandwich is on page 143 of Essential Pepin.
