I am a big French baguette fan, and you may have noticed this by now. I just love the crunchy exterior (the crunchier, the better!) and soft and comforting interior of a well-made baguette. I’ve never been to France, but I hope to travel there one day and to get the chance to experience baguette deliciousness at its best, on the streets of Paris, hot straight from the oven and complemented by a dash or two of wholesome butter. Still, not all sandwich/panini recipes work well with baguettes, and my ongoing challenge is to find what bread is best suited to the other ingredients that I have. This leads to a lot of what I call “sandwich experimenting” – so much to eat, so little time ๐
I have recently started to use onion rolls in my recipes, and I’m very pleased with the results. With their feisty personality and unmistakable taste, onion rolls raise the flavor bar and are definitely well suited to complement mild ingredients. Last week I used an onion roll to create a cottage cheese sandwich, and the pairing worked perfectly. The assertive onion truly elevated the gentle and unassuming cottage cheese, while also holding its own against the sharp cheddar cheese flavor.
I made this sandwich because I had some leftover cottage cheese in the fridge, which reminded me of a type of sandwich I used to eat a lot when I lived in England. That sandwich had wholewheat bread and cottage cheese mixed with watercress, one of the most popular and most widely used ingredients in the English cuisine. Sadly, I was not able to find watercress at the grocery stores near me, so I made the sandwich with fresh parsley instead of watercress. I used large curd cottage cheese, but I think you can use any kind of unflavored cottage cheese.
Ingredients
1 onion roll
2 slices Polish ham
2 slices sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 sprig flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Sliced pepperoncini (optional)
Wash and chop the parsley. In a small bowl combine the cottage cheese with the parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the onion roll in half and spread a layer of cottage cheese on each half. Put one slice of cheese on top of the cottage cheese, on the half roll which will make up the bottom of the sandwich. Fold one slice of ham and put it on top of the cheddar, then add the second slice of cheddar and the remaining slice of ham. Place the other half roll on top.
This is how the preparation process looks like:
Press the sandwich gently. Cut it in half and serve it with cottage cheese on the side or with sliced pepperoncini for an extra spicy kick.
Who would have thought cottage cheese and onion roll work so well together? Not me, that’s for sure. I love the flavor combination in this sandwich, its vibrant colors, and last but not least the fact that it brings back happy memories from the years we spent in England. I see lots of onion rolls in my future ๐
