for the love of mayonnaise a blog about sandwiches.

So I wanted to make a good salami sandwich but amazingly enough I was not in the mood for your typical cold cut sub. I also feel guilty whenever I eat an Italian Cold Cut because I admittedly do not eat it ‘correctly.’ I feel like there is always a debate around what is a traditional cold cut sub but I have found that the dill pickle flavor, onions and tomatoes are a constant.

I don’t know much about deli meats and the closest really good Italian deli is in Baltimore and since I now work from home, it’s not convenient to go. So last time I was at my local grocery store deli, I stopped, asked them to give me a 1/2 pound of their best salami thinly sliced, and then went with my two year old to go find cookies. The young man behind the counter asked if I wanted to taste it before I bought it but I declined. It ended up being Margherita hard salami I think. I have yet to get to the bottom of the differences between hard salami and Genoa salami and rules on creating Italian meats vs. meats from other geographical locations so if anyone knows anything about feel free to comment!

This was my sweeter interpretation of a cold cut made with a base of cream cheese and puff pastry and I’ve got to say, it was very tasty. Here’s how you make the dill pickle relish cream cheese, very easy:

Dill Pickle Relish Cream Cheese
Ingredients:
Red Onion, diced
Tomato, seeded and diced
Dill Pickles, diced (I’m a Claussen girl, but you can use whatever kind you want)
Cream Cheese, room temperature
Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Set out your cream cheese on the counter to bring it to room temperature so you can mess with it. Dice up as much red onion, dill pickle and tomato as you want. Mix them all together with your cream cheese.

Add a splash of the vinegar and taste and mix together well. If it is a little too strong you can add a pinch of sugar, but I like the tartness you get mixed with the sweeter cream cheese when you add a decent amount of the vinegar. Salt and Pepper to taste.

You can add in whatever else you like, garlic powder, etc. But if you are good with what you have here then you’re done.

You can eat this for breakfast or a heavy snack. Or dinner. Or lunch. Whatever. You can eat it open faced or sandwiched like I did. Either way you can’t really go wrong. You could put a turd between a sheet of puff pastry and it would taste good. That was gross. I’m sorry. But now those of you who have never eaten puff pastry will go buy it. You’re welcome. Except now you will always eat it with that image in your head. I’m sorry.

Moving on.

Salami with Dill Relish Cream Cheese Sandwich
Ingredients:
Dill Pickle Relish Cream Cheese
Tomato slices
Salami, thinly sliced
Puff Pastry, 1/2 sheet
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
Set your puff pastry on the counter for 40 minutes. If you can’t bake it right away stick it in your fridge until you can. Take one sheet and divide it into quarters. You will only need half of this so this would make you two sandwiches. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes or until they are nice and puffed up and golden on the top.

Once they have cooled for a few minutes, lay your sliced tomatoes on one side. Then spread your cream cheese relish mixture on top of those. Then fold some slices of salami, be generous. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then top with your other puff pastry square. Enjoy.