Rich ham and cheese toastie
- Published: 29 Sep 22
- Updated: 4 Mar 25
Monica Galetti’s rich ham and cheese toastie is a classic taken to the max: grilled sourdough with cheesy béchamel, extra melted cheddar and parma ham.
Monica Galetti was the first-ever female senior sous chef at Michel Roux Jr’s restaurant Le Gavroche. She later rose to fame as a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals. Monica is a judge on the Platinum Pudding competition for The Queen’s Jubilee, and with her husband David runs the acclaimed Mere restaurant in London.
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Serves 4
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Hands-on time 25 min
Ingredients
- 300ml whole milk
- 30g unsalted butter
- 30g plain flour
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 200g mature cheddar, grated
- 4 sourdough bread slices
- Olive oil to drizzle
- 100g parma ham slices
- Worcestershire sauce or hot chilli sauce to finish
Method
- Heat the milk in a saucepan. In a separate saucepan, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour. Whisk in the hot milk and continue whisking as the sauce comes to the boil, then cook over a medium heat for 2 minutes to cook out the flour (removing the flour’s raw taste for a nuttier flavour). Take off the heat, then stir in the mustard and most of the cheddar, reserving about 70g.
- Heat the grill to high. Drizzle the sourdough with olive oil and arrange on a large baking sheet. Toast under the grill on one side until golden. Turn over, spread some of the cheese sauce over the sourdough, then add a layer of ham. Cover with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle over the reserved cheddar.
- Put back under the grill to melt the cheese. Drizzle with a little Worcestershire sauce or chilli sauce – whichever you prefer – then serve immediately
- Recipe from April 2022 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 561kcals
- Fat
- 35.6g (18.4g saturated)
- Protein
- 26.6g
- Carbohydrates
- 32.7g (4.1g sugars)
- Fibre
- 1.8g
- Salt
- 2.8g
delicious. tips
You can make the cheese sauce (step 1) 1-2 days ahead. Cool, then cover and store in the fridge until ready to assemble. The sauce will thicken to a spreading consistency when chilled but will loosen up when heated under the grill.
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Clearly a cheese on toast expert, who understands toast one side, turn, and add topping. The only way to truly amazing cheese on toast.Not really a surprise though, Monica is ace!