cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Sandwich’ Category

I’m certain I’m not the first one to notice, but I must ask anyway. Exactly who was it and when that decided half of all Italian foods must begin with the letter “P”? Hey, even if you start typing “Italian food” in the Google toolbar one of the suggestions it offers is “starting with P”, and that’s based on the popular searches — so it’s not just me!

Oddly enough Google’s first 100 results never once listed a single page that actually corresponds to the search. It did find a bizarre reference to “P. Diddy’s Pasta” which you don’t want to know about …. Can you say time for another algorithm tune-up, Big G? I mean, wow, you couldn’t even match 1 in 100 to your own toolbar suggestion? That’s just sad. But enough of SEO and let’s get back to eating.

And so, since someone has to do it, at least in part … pancetta, prosciutto, polenta, pepperoni, pasta, provolone, panna cotta, Parmigiano Reggiano, Pecorino romano, panettone and the big one, pizza … to name a few. Seriously though, and I’m sure you knew this already, the “joke” is when you do find a long and exhaustive list of Italian food names, what you find is exactly what any intelligent person would expect: the percentage of names starting with a “P” is actually very small.

So it’s always seemed interesting the “coincidence”, for lack of a better word, that many of the most delicious and more well-known Italian dishes in the English language just happen by circumstance to be that way.

What’s way more important and to the point is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, an Italian food by any other name would taste as delicious. And so, here is a delicious sandwich to enjoy. If it’s not Italian, it’s definitely Italian-American to be sure. And yes, a three-”P”er in fact. You’ve love it on your pizza, and you’ve probably enjoyed had it with cheese and crackers, now to make it the main centerpiece of your lunch, pepperoni that is, with peppers and provolone.

A couple of quick thoughts and notes. First, of course here I am bringing you this sandwich, and from a city known for it’s great sandwiches, the hoagie, the Philadelphia cheesesteak and a strong Italian-American community, well it’s just very fitting. I just figured if the sausage and pepper sandwich is well-known then hey this makes a nice twist on the concept.

Next, note, here is yet another a recipe where the microwave comes nicely in play: both in giving a quick heat to the sauce and the very important melting of the cheese into the roll. What would we do without that appliance? Gotta love the ol’ “nuker”.

Oh, and I have to one big note of warning for you: Do use a larger plate than the one I have in my photograph. I hadn’t had this sandwich in a while, and forgot how this one comes under the heading of “delicious and messy”. Naturally after I took the photo, I dug right in and was suddenly reminded of this fact, in a rather messy way. So, use a large plate and bring several napkins with you. Trust me, it’s worth it!

Pepperoni, Peppers and Provolone Sandwich
©2007 Harry Kenney

1/4 medium yellow onion, thin slices
1/4 large green bell pepper, thin slices
18-24 pepperoni slices
six-inch long roll, preferably Italian steak roll
three slices provolone
4 hefty tbsps spaghetti sauce
olive oil

On low flame, put in onions into small pan, sweat and brown slightly. Take out. Do same with bells. Take out. Blot both if you wish with paper towel. Put in pepperoni, same as before. Take out, definitely blot excess oils.

Place Italian roll on a paper towel to prevent sweating, open up, place across two sides, three overlapping slices of pepperoni. Place in microwave 15-25 seconds to melt. Remove. Place in microwave spaghetti sauce in dish, cover on top with paper towel to prevent splattering. Heat up for about 15-20 seconds. Remove.

Place 3/4s of the sauce up and down both sides of open sandwich. Pile on peppers and onions evenly. Likewise pepperoni. Take remaining 1/4 of sauce and place atop each. Fold and eat.