Salsa verde (cold green sauce)

For ➍
1 heaped tbs capers
8 small pickled gherkins
1 heaped tbs (sharp) mustard
½ bunch parsley, washed
1 bunch basil, washed
1 dl extra virgin olive oil (extra oil if necessary)
a dash of vinegar (e.g. white wine vinegar)
salt & pepper

Blend the gherkins, capers and mustard.
Add the basil leaves and parsley. Mix. Add the vinegar. Mix.
Add some olive oil. Mix until smooth.
Season the sauce with a little salt and pepper.
Put the salsa in a jar and put it cool.
Serve it with crown of lamb or other grilled or braised meat or grilled fish.

This version of green sauce is close to the Italian version of it, but the idea of chopping green herbs into a sauce is well spread, with the French sauce verte, the German grüne Sausse with different herbs, South American chimichurri, or the Mexican salsa verde, each in several regional versions. Originally, the sauce came from the Near East, and was brought to Italy by Roman soldiers. In the renaissance, it spread to France and Germany.

Pastrami & cream cheese sandwich

For ➊ sandwich
2 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.