Chef recommends hiking sandwich with ham, truffle cheese and pickled gherkins

Normunds Baranovskis, chef at the Rimi retail chain, recommends making a ciabatta sandwich with ham and truffle cheese for hikes or longer trips. On the show “Piecu sastāvdaļu maltīte” (Five-Ingredient Meal), he suggested adding something pickled, such as small pickled gherkins, to keep the sandwich from feeling too heavy and to give it a fresher taste while balancing its richness.

Ingredients

The recipe serves four. It calls for:

• 2 ciabatta loaves;
• 250 grams, or 2 packs, of Selection by Rimi truffle Brie cheese;
• 2 packs of Selection by Rimi cooked prosciutto cotto ham;
• a handful of pickled gherkins;
• 8 teaspoons of Selection by Rimi Pesto Calabrese;
• cooking oil, salt and pepper.

Preparation

Trim the ends off the bread and, if needed, remove the rounded top. Cut each loaf lengthwise into two slices. Brush the slices with olive oil and toast them at 230 °C. Slice the cheese as thinly as possible.

Take the bread out of the oven, spread it with pesto and layer the cheese on top. Return it to the oven for about 30 seconds, until the cheese has softened slightly. Place ham and sliced pickled gherkins on one slice, then cover with the other slice.

Other tips

Baranovskis advises against throwing away bread ends: they can become croutons for cream soups, or be dried and ground into breadcrumbs for coating. For a tightly screwed jar lid that is hard to open, he suggests lightly tapping the edge of the lid with the back of a knife. The technique is only worth using if the jar and lid will not be reused.