Fried Ham and Cheese Sandwich with Vermont Sourdough Bread

My choice of bread to make this sandwich is my go-to plain sourdough bread with 20% whole wheat from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread. I am fond of this bread, for no other rational reasons, other than the fact that it was the first sourdough bread I had mastered when I started learning how to bake bread.

It was quite a while ago — three years, give and take. The taste and texture of this bread got me hooked. Not before long, I was committed to setting up the whole home bread-making process and operation. Ingredients for making bread are few and straightforward, but you do need a hot oven and some special equipment. Feeding the starter and baking my own bread has since become the ritual and rhythm in my kitchen. It’s a game changer. There is no going back to the store-bought varieties. When we run out of bread, reach for the flour!

One thing for sure: David Lebovitz’s recipe of fried ham and cheese sandwich is elevating a crusty sourdough loaf into a satisfying hearty meal. I need to find more recipes like this. Instead of ham, I used a few thinly sliced Prosciutto. Between the bèchamel and the gooey Comté, this sandwich is a real treat — with a French twist.

I found it easy to fry the sandwich on a stove-top cast-iron grill pan. I bypassed the broiler step in favor of a more streamlined process. (Really, do I want to pile on more cheese in one sandwich? My arteries said no.) A heavy Dutch oven pan, which I have a collection of, was called into service as a sandwich press. I’m big on certain gadgets, Dutch oven being one of them. Finding multiple uses of the pots and pans I have on hand thrills me. These workhorses never fail to get the job done: fast, even and beautifully. I should start naming them, like the living, breathing pets.

You won’t see me buying bread. You won’t see me outsourcing sandwich-making. But you would see me flipping and serving these “gotta have it” sandwiches, pots and pans in hand, over an open fire in the kitchen. All smiles!