Bigos Reuben Melt with Russian Dressing

Method

1. Cut the bacon into 5 mm strips and the sausage into thin 5 mm slices, and thinly slice the onion. Cook the bacon and sausage in a 24 cm frying pan on medium heat for 4 min until the fat runs and they turn golden, then add the onion and cook for 3 min more until soft.

   Add in this stepSmoked bacon 40 gSmoked sausage (kiełbasa) 120 gOnion ½

   medium heat

2. Squeeze the sauerkraut dry, chop it into 1 to 2 cm pieces and add it with the tomato paste, water, marjoram, caraway and pepper. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 min, taking the lid off for the last 5 minutes to drive off the liquid. There should be almost no liquid left in the pan, or the bread will go soggy. Tip onto a plate to cool slightly and wipe out the pan.

   Add in this stepSauerkraut 200 gTomato paste 1 tbspWater 100 mlDried marjoram ½ tspCaraway seeds ½ tspBlack pepper to taste

   low heat

3. In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise, ketchup, chopped pickle, horseradish and paprika to make the Russian dressing. It should taste tangy with a gentle kick.

   Add in this stepMayonnaise 3 tbspKetchup 1 tbspDill pickle, finely chopped 2 tbspPrepared horseradish 1 tspPaprika 1 pinch

4. Spread a thin layer of butter on one side of each slice of bread and lay half of them butter-side down on a board. Spread those with dressing, then layer a slice of cheese, a generous mound of bigos and another slice of cheese, and top with the remaining bread, butter-side up. Cheese on both sides of the filling melts and glues everything together.

   Add in this stepRye bread slices 4Emmental or Swiss cheese slices 4Butter, softened 20 g

5. Toast the sandwiches in the clean pan on medium-low heat in 1 batch(es), 6 min in total, flipping each batch halfway and pressing down firmly with a spatula. They are done when the bread is deep golden and the cheese oozes out of the sides. Cut diagonally and serve with the rest of the dressing.

   medium-low heat