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Anchovy and Cheese Sandwiches-No. 1
10 tablespoons Parmesan cheese 10 slices toasted bread 5 anchovies Add to the Parmesan cheese the anchovy and rub to a paste. Spread between two very thin slices of toasted buttered bread.
A three-ingredient filling that lives or dies on the ratio: two tablespoons of grated Parmesan to one anchovy is aggressively salty, so the butter and the thinness of the toast are doing real work.
- YieldTen slices of toast make five sandwiches. Each gets about two tablespoons of cheese and one anchovy.
- The anchoviesPeriod anchovies might be salt-cured whole fish needing rinsing, boning and drying, though tinned fillets were also available. With modern oil-packed fillets, blot the oil off or the paste will be loose.
- ParmesanGrate it finely yourself. Pre-grated shaker cheese carries an anti-caking agent and tends to give a drier, more granular paste that binds poorly.
- Making the pasteA mortar or a small food processor does this faster than a fork. If it stays crumbly, work in a teaspoon of softened butter rather than water.
- SaltAdd none. Between the cured fish and the cheese there is more than enough; the recipe calls for no salt at all.
- Toast and butterButter the toast while it is warm so it absorbs, then let it cool before spreading the paste; hot toast will make the cheese sweat oil.
- TimingAssemble close to serving. Left to stand, the moisture from the filling softens thin toast into something limp.