Nigel Slater’s fontina, sausage and mustard sandwich recipe
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Version 0 of 1. The recipe To make two sandwiches, slit the skin of 175g of good, herb-freckled breakfast sausages and peel it away. Crumble the sausagemeat into large pieces and fry until golden. Slice three rashers of smoked streaky or back bacon into postage stamp-sized pieces and fry with the sausage until the fat is crisp. Toast four thick slices of sourdough bread on both sides. Spread each piece on one side with smooth Dijon mustard. Thinly slice 150g of good melting cheese, such as Fontina, and place it over two slices of the toast. Spoon the hot, crumbled sausage and bacon on top, trickling over any bacon fat as you go. Top the bacon and sausage with two large gherkins thickly sliced lengthways. Place the second slice of toast on top. Warm a little oil in a frying pan or griddle pan over a moderate heat, brush the outside of the toast with butter and lay the sandwiches down in the pan. Leave them to brown, pressing them down from time to time, then carefully turn, covering with a lid if the cheese has yet to melt. Eat, with a salad of frisée and watercress, once the cheese is melting and the toast is crisp. The trick Use a heavy-based pan to cook your sandwich. A thin pan will burn the bread before the filling has melted. Keep the temperature quite low – you can always turn it up at the end. The twist Use crumbled chorizo or a good black pudding. You take the whole thing in a different direction by using mozzarella with an Italian fennel-seed sausage and spreading the bread with a layer of green olive paste. Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater |