Grilled Pastrami and Swiss on Rye

Granted....on the surface, it seems pretty unremarkable that I am featuring what appears to be a very pedestrian sandwich on my blog this week. I had the same feelings when I ran across this recipe on Flipboard, one of my favorite iPad apps. Flipboard is an aggregator app. You list things that are of interest to you and it pulls all those relative stories from across the web into one neat package.

Food and Recipes are but two of the topics I have entered into Flipboard. And that is where this seemingly unremarkable recipe popped up. But I read it anyway and found it to be remarkable for two reasons. First, the recipe calls for making this sandwich using homemade sweet onion marmalade. The addition of that ingredient takes this sandwich to infinity and beyond.

But I am not the only one who found it remarkable....and hence reason number two. The readers of Sunset Magazine voted this as one of the top 50 magazine recipes of all-time. And you have to love the simplicity: rye bread (marbled, if you are lucky), pastrami, Swiss cheese, and onion marmalade. This Jennifer Brumfield recipe makes two sandwiches.


INGREDIENTS

For the Onion Marmalade
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup Zinfandel

For the Sandwiches
4 slices rye bread
2 tablespoons softened butter
8 slices pastrami
4 slices Swiss cheese
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard


DIRECTIONS

1. Make marmalade: Melt butter with oil in a large heavy frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper, stirring well to combine. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions have softened and browned, about 20 minutes. Add vinegar and wine. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has been absorbed and onions are soft and sticky, about 10 minutes. Let marmalade cool slightly.
2. Make sandwiches: Evenly spread one side of each bread slice with 1/2 tablespoon butter. Spread unbuttered side of 2 slices with 1-1/2 tablespoons marmalade each, then top with pastrami and cheese. Spread mustard on unbuttered side of remaining 2 bread slices and place each, buttered side up, on pastrami and cheese-topped slices.
3. Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add sandwiches and cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides and cheese is melted, about 5 minutes total.

Wine Pairing: If it's good enough to go into your Onion Marmalade, it's good enough to wash down your sandwich! Zinfandel it is.

A tip of my hat to my Dad today, which would have been his 66th wedding anniversary.