It’s the spectacular hot sandwiches of Philadelphia that get all the buzz, but do not underestimate for a minute that city’s seriously delicious cold sandwiches, which are known as “hoagies.” Everywhere you turn in Philly, someone is slapping something–usually meat, usually Italian in spirit–on a hero. The best sandwich-makers realize that terrific ingredients make terrific sandwiches. For starters, there’s the bread from Philly bakeries. Unlike the fluffy stuff from Amoroso’s Bakery that works so well in a Philly Cheesesteak, it’s the crunchy, chewy hero breads from Sarcone’s Bakery that make Philly’s best hoagies. And if you go to a top sandwich shop–like Cileone’s, or Rocco’s–you’ll also be dazzled by the quality of what’s inside the bread. So to make the following hoagie–inspired by something called “The Italian Special with Prosciutto” at Rocco’s–be sure to get the best of everything at a good Italian deli in your neighborhood. And get the right bread! (See BREAD NOTE below.) The day after Thanksgiving is a great time to make these hoagies…because who wants to cook on Black Friday, having severely messed up the kitchen the day before???
Makes 1 hoagie, enough for 2 normal people
a hero bread, about 8″ long and 3 1/2″ wide (see NOTE)
4 teaspoons good olive oil
1 teaspoon red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
a ripe, medium tomato, very thinly sliced
2 ounces thin-sliced boiled ham
1 ounce thin-sliced soppresata
2 ounces thin-sliced provolone
1 ounce thin-sliced prosciutto
1 ounce thin-sliced Genoa salami
2 ounces thin-sliced cappicolla
1/4 cup marinated peppers (see NOTE)
1/4 cup thinly sliced purple onion
1. Cut the bread in half, lengthwise. Open it on the counter. Pull out some of the interior. Sprinkle the oil and the vinegar over the cut side of each half, distributing evenly.
2. Lay the lettuce on one of the halves, spreading it out evenly. Top with 2 thin layers of tomato slices. Reserve remaining tomato. Season tomato with salt and pepper.
3. Begin layering meat and cheese, making sure each layer is distributed evely along the length and width of the bread half: the ham, the soppresata, 1 ounce of the provolone, the prosciutto, the remaining ounce of provolone, the Genoa salami, and the cappicolla.
4. Top meats with the peppers and onions, spreading them out evenly. Top that with 2 final layers of thin tomato slices. season tomato with salt and pepper. Lay the second half of bread on top of the hoagie, cut in half, and serve.
BREAD NOTE: Buy a great Italian bread that’s about 3 1/2″ wide; the length doesn’t matter, just as long as you can cut it into 8″ sections (most long Italian breads will yield 2 sections for 2 sandwiches.) The crust of the bread should very crunchy, and the interior should have a medium-dense chew.
PEPPER NOTE: There’s a wide range of pepper products available–even at your supermarket!–that could be used in this sandwich. Store shelves contain many jarred variations of pickled peppers, roasted peppers, sweet peppers, hot peppers, etc. You’re on your own in choosing your fave. The supermarket product in a jar that I prefer on this sandwich is called Mancini Fried Peppers (red and green together), made with onions, in Zolfo Springs, Florida, and nationally distributed. There are other good brands of fried peppers as well in jars.
