Pressed sandwich

A delicious pressed sandwich full of meat, cheese, and marinated vegetables.

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5 from 1 vote

A delicious pressed sandwich full of meat, cheese, and marinated vegetables.

Prep Time30

Chilling time12

Course: Light meal, Lunch, Snack

Cuisine: American, Italian

Servings: people

Calories: 590kcal

Author: Mia Kouppa

Equipment

Electric knife, optional
parchment paper and aluminum foil to wrap baguette

Ingredients

1 baguette
3 tbsp (45 mL) pesto
2 tbsp (30 mL) olive oil
1 pound assorted deli meats We used a combination of cooked turkey, roast beef, smoked ham and spicy salami
6 slices aged cheddar cheese See Recipe Note
6 slices gouda cheese
6 slices edam cheese
1 roasted red pepper patted dry and cut into strips
½ cup marinated artichoke hearts patted dry and cut into pieces
¼ cup sliced Kalamata olives
¼ cup sliced red onion
2 tbsp sliced hot peppers
3-4 cups arugula
2 tbsp (30 mL) Italian salad dressing

Instructions

Using the electric knife if you have one, cut the baguette lengthwise. If you don't have an electric knife, use a serrated bread knife. Cut your bread carefully as you want both halves to be even.
Using your hands, carefully tear out the center crumb of your bread (both halves). You don't want to tear out all the crumb but enough to leave a hollowed out section in the center of both halves.
To begin assembling your sandwich, place the bottom half of your baguette, cut side up, in front of you, drizzle the olive oil over the cut side. Brush to spread the oil everywhere. Layer half of your deli meat over the olive oil, tucking some of the meat into the hollow that you made when scooping out the crumb.
On top of the meat arrange the roasted red pepper strips, the marinated artichoke, the red onion, the hot pepper and the olives.
Add one layer of cheese, being mindful to completely cover the marinated vegetables.
Continue to assemble your sandwich by adding on the rest of the deli meat and then the rest of the cheese.
Next, take the top half of your baguette and spread the pesto over the cut side. Add the arugula to the scooped out hollow of that half and then drizzle with Italian salad dressing. Carefully place the top half of your sandwich over your bottom half and press down.
Wrap your baguette carefully with parchment paper or wax paper and then wrap it again tightly with aluminum foil. Transfer to the refrigerator and press down on your sandwich with something heavy. (See Recipe Note)
Press your sandwich for a minimum of 12 hours. We like to place a baking tray on top of the sandwich and weigh it down with something like cans or jars. When ready to serve, carefully unwrap your sandwich and cut it into serving sizes that you prefer. An electric knife works really well here too.

Notes

The quantities listed were adequate for a standard size French baguette. If you use a different type of bread, or your baguette is a different size than the one we used, you may need more or less deli meat, cheese and remaining ingredients.

You can use any cheese you like but we recommend using a variety of three different cheese slices. Our cheese slices were rather large so 6 were enough to cover the entire baguette with a bit of overlap. You may need to use more or fewer slices of cheese depending on the size of your baguette.

Nutrition