For ➊ sandwich2 slices of bread, white or wholemeal
100 g cream cheese
a few salad leaves or gherkin slices
4 pastrami slices
Spread the cream cheese evenly on the 2 bread slices.
Place the lettuce leaves on one slice of bread.
Add the pastrami on top and close the sandwich by placing the other slice on top.
*Add gherkin and mustard at the last moment for a version closer to the American classic.
Pastrami came to the US with immigrants from Romania. The name was coined to sound like 'salami' in New York City in 1887 by Jewish butcher Reb Sussman after he was given the recipe by a Romanian immigrant. He introduced the classic warm pastrami rye sandwich and soon opened the first New York deli. The pastrami sandwich, stuffed with a gargantuan amount of beef immigrants had never known in Europe, became a celebration of the rich new country. This recipe is a modest variation on the meat monster.
The pastramă preservation method to brine and spice meat is related to the similar basterma, still popular in the regions of the former Ottoman empire.
