Pastrami egg and cheese sandwich is a deli sandwich moved to breakfast. Pastrami, Swiss and soft scrambled eggs go into pretzel bread with red wine cabbage and horseradish cream cheese. The whole thing then gets griddled like a toastie.
The recipe comes from Idiot Sandwich, Gordon Ramsay’s sandwich cookbook. Its argument is simple: pastrami usually turns up at lunch or late at night, so why not put it on the breakfast table instead.
The eggs are where the work goes. Wholegrain mustard and crème fraîche get stirred straight into them as they set, with butter going in twice and chives folded through at the end.
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Pastrami Egg and Cheese Sandwich
Course: BreakfastCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium4
sandwiches30
minutes1
hour45
minutes1450
kcal2 hr 15 min
From Gordon Ramsay’s Idiot Sandwich. Pastrami, Swiss and mustard-spiked scrambled eggs on pretzel bread, layered with red wine cabbage and horseradish cream cheese, then griddled until golden on both sides.
Ingredients
- For the red wine cabbage:
2 tbsp neutral oil
½ medium red cabbage, shredded (3 cups)
¾ cup red wine
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp granulated sugar
½ tsp caraway seeds
½ tbsp sea salt
⅓ cup water
3 tbsp unsalted butter
- For the horseradish cream cheese:
115g cream cheese, at room temperature (4 oz)
1 tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tbsp thinly sliced chives
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp cracked black pepper
- For the eggs:
4 tbsp unsalted butter
8 large eggs
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
¼ cup crème fraîche
2 tbsp chopped chives
Sea salt and ground black pepper
- To assemble:
4 tbsp softened unsalted butter
8 slices pretzel bread
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
8 slices Swiss cheese
450g sliced pastrami (1 lb)
Directions
- Start the cabbage: Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the shredded cabbage and cook for about 10 minutes, until wilted and softened.
- Braise it: Stir in the wine, vinegar, sugar, caraway seeds, salt and water. Bring to a simmer, then lower to medium-low, cover and cook for 40 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by half.
- Finish the cabbage: Stir in the butter and cook for another 30 minutes. Take it off the heat and adjust the seasoning. It keeps five days in the fridge.
- Make the horseradish cream cheese: Mix the cream cheese, horseradish, chives, salt and pepper in a small bowl. This also keeps five days.
- Scramble the eggs: Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in a medium non-stick pan over a medium-low heat. Whisk the eggs until the yolks and whites are fully combined, then pour them in.
- Enrich them: Stir frequently with a rubber spatula, pushing the eggs gently as they begin to set. Add the mustard and crème fraîche, then stir in the remaining 2 tbsp of butter. They should end up soft, creamy and fluffy. Fold in the chives, lift them out and wipe the pan.
- Build: Spread softened butter thinly over one side of each slice of pretzel bread. Turn them over, then spread mustard on four slices and horseradish cream cheese on the other four. Onto the mustard slices go warmed red wine cabbage, the scrambled eggs, two slices of Swiss and a heap of pastrami. Close with the cream cheese slices, buttered sides facing out.
- Griddle: Put the non-stick pan back over a medium heat. Toast two sandwiches at a time for about 90 seconds a side, until golden brown.
Notes
- The book’s build step lists everything except the pastrami, even though a pound of it is in the ingredients and the photograph shows it under the eggs. I have put it on the cheese, which is where the picture has it. Both the cabbage and the horseradish cream cheese keep for five days, so make them ahead and the sandwich itself takes half an hour. Calories are worked out from the ingredients.
FAQs
Can you make pastrami egg and cheese ahead?
The cabbage and the horseradish cream cheese both keep for five days in the fridge, so make them a day or two ahead. That drops the sandwich itself to about thirty minutes.
The eggs and the griddling have to happen at the last minute. Scrambled eggs go rubbery on reheating, and a toasted sandwich softens within minutes of leaving the pan.
Why put mustard and crème fraîche in the scrambled eggs?
Wholegrain mustard and crème fraîche go into the eggs as they set, not onto the sandwich afterwards. The mustard cuts the fat of the pastrami and the crème fraîche keeps the curds soft.
Butter goes in twice as well, half at the start and half stirred through while they cook. Chives fold in last, off the heat.
Why caraway seeds in the cabbage?
Half a teaspoon of caraway is what makes it taste like a deli rather than a Sunday roast. Caraway is the seed in rye bread, so it puts the cabbage in the same family as pastrami on rye.
It also separates this from the braised red cabbage in Great British Pub Food. That one goes sweet, with apple, dark brown sugar and port.
Why griddle the sandwich after building it?
Ninety seconds a side in a hot pan, which melts the Swiss into the pastrami and crisps the outside. The butter goes on the outer faces of the bread first, so it browns as it toasts.
Two at a time is the limit, otherwise the pan cools and they steam instead of toasting. Press them gently together before they go in.
What is pretzel bread and what can you use instead?
Pretzel bread is a dense, chewy loaf with a dark burnished crust, made by dipping the dough in an alkaline solution before baking. It stands up to a heavy filling better than ordinary sliced bread.
Rye is the natural substitute here and suits the caraway in the cabbage. Sourdough works too, as long as the slices are thick enough to hold everything.
How much pastrami goes in?
A pound between four sandwiches, so roughly 115g each, sliced however you like it. The book is relaxed about thickness and says thick or thin both work.
Pastrami is cured and smoked beef brisket, the same cut Ramsay slow-roasts for the beef brisket. Here it sits on the Swiss cheese, under the eggs, though the book’s build step leaves it out entirely.
