Prosciutto, Brie, and Apple Sandwiches

I had a nice bottle of champagne on hand and was determined to use it for mimosas on the roof this past weekend so I invited Beth over for a Saturday brunch.  I couldn't just serve mimosas - that's just not the kind of hostess I am - so I prepared two summer salads.  The first was tomato, basil, and mozzarella.  I used a mix of yellow, orange, purple, and red cherry tomatoes - the colors take no extra time to slice but make it much more visually appealing.  The second was a super quick potato salad.  I boiled off potatoes and mixed them with store-bought pesto (any variety works; I used spinach pesto).  A little extra parm and pine nuts finished it off.

The third dish was ham, brie, and apple on baguette.  One baguette was enough for three full sandwiches.  Then you'll need about 1/2 lb of ham, a big chunk of brie (spread on each side of the split baguette), and one granny smith apple.  I meant to get regular smoked ham and accidentally purchased fancy pants jamon iberico instead.  At first I was a little upset about spending more money but then I tasted how much better it made the sandwich.  You don't need to use jamon iberico, but I think even a domestic prosciutto would make this sandwich tastier and more European than regular ham.

This is just like the sandwiches you pick up at a small cafe on a side street in France.  I'm not using my imagination for that statement.  I have, in fact, picked up a sandwich just like this at a small cafe when I was living in France and eating on my roof took me right back there.  Instead of the Eiffel Tower, I was looking at the Empire State Building.  Not a bad trade-off.  This sandwich takes just moments to put together and even when I used the expensive jamon, it came out to only about $6.80 per sandwich - cheaper than anything I could have purchased.  Use a cheaper version of ham or prosciutto and you can get it down to under $5 per sammy.