I love a theme and this week was the glorious and beloved “sandwich week”. This sandwich comes from Fine Cooking magazine and was supremely delicious. I used the Kerrygold Red Leicester which has a super nice creamy texture and melts well. I am not going to put specific measurements so that you can adjust your ingredients to however many sandwiches you want to make. I always have this tendency to think that if a little of something is good, a lot is even better, but in this case you don’t want to overload the sandwich.
1/2″ thick sliced Italian or sourdough bread (I used the huge Turano loaf that I would normally never buy but it held up really well to all the ingredients and tasted good grilled)
apple butter
Dijon mustard
shredded cheddar cheese
pastrami (I used Vienna all-beef pastrami from the deli)
very thinly sliced honeycrisp apples (mandoline at 1/8″ or 1/16″ setting)
softened butter
Spread the outside of 2 pieces of bread with butter. Flip the bread over and on one piece, spread a thin layer of apple butter and on the other a thin layer of Dijon mustard. Sprinkle some cheddar cheese over the apple butter slice, then layer the pastrami and some slices of apple. Top that with more cheddar cheese and cover with the other slice of bread. Heat a large pan over medium-slightly high heat- you don’t want this to brown too quickly without melting the cheese. If you have a panini press thingy, weigh down the sandwich while it is cooking. Cook on both sides until nicely browned and cheese is melted inside. The sandwich was awesome with a Newcastle Brown Ale.