Recipe - Ham, Cheese & Grilled Pineapple Toastie
Controversial ham & pineapple chaos in toastie form...
I know this flavour combo causes a lot of controversy when topping a pizza but is truly delightful when sandwiched between two bits of bread. Here is a recipe for a very cheerful ham, cheese and pineapple toastie from Episode 1 of the 'How to eat Alone' podcast with chef, Katie Holton. Listen to the episode here.
Time: 10-15 minutes
Faff Level: 4/10 (unless you are using a real pineapple that you have to cut, in which case faff level goes up exponentially)
Makes: Exactly enough for one cheese toastie.
Plant Based Diet: For a vegan option, try a grated plant alternative to mozzarella, because most brands do actually melt quite well! For both vegans and veggies, obviously, your toasties won't include the ham part, but try adding some tobasco, sriacha or your favourite hot sauce to the cheese and the grilled pineapple, it's an excellent combo. If you don't want to include the vegan mozzarella, this toastie is also excellent with just grilled pineapple and an assortment of chopped chillis. Add extra salt and pepper as well.
Ingredients:
2 slices of sourdough bread, sliced quite thin. If they're too thick, they will be a nightmare to fry and eat. If you do one thing, please make sure to use sourdough. I will have a rant about why another time.
70 g of grated, smelly cheese that melts. I've used Ogelshield, but Comte and Gruyere also work well. Grating the cheese first means that it will melt quicker.
2 pineapple ring slices from a can of tinned pineapple. Also an option to buy an actual pineapple, but I just find it easier and, more often than not, cheaper to buy the tinned stuff.
2 slices of ham. I've used a fatty, British cured ham.
A pinch of pepper
Directions:
1. Butter one side of each slice of bread with butter/plant based butter alternatives. The buttered side is the outside of your toastie.
2. Fry or grill the pineapple pieces until they start to go crispy.
4. Scatter the grated cheese over one of the unbuttered slices of bread, then lay over the ham slices, followed by the pineapple pieces. Close the sandwich up
5. Fry the sandwich in a pan, at first on a high heat until it begins to sizzle, making sure you keep swapping sides of the toastie. Once the toastie starts to sizzle, turn the heat right down and opt for a low and slow approach. Toast to your preference, I personally like to see three different colours on my toastie - black, dark brown and golden brown.
6. Take off the heat, slice in two and eat when at the sweet spot between toungue-burningly hot and very hot. Enjoy eating your toastie whilst being alone in the best possible way.