Italian Garden Sandwich

Mezzetta just had a sandwich smackdown.  The rules of the game required using two of their products in a sandwich in one of three categories: hot, cold or vegetarian.  To say my local grocery carries a limited selection of their products would be overstating matters.  They had gardiniera, roasted mixed peppers and some pickled jalapenos.  Hmmmmmm, what sounded good?  Gardiniera is a bit lumpy to put in a sandwich.  Isn't that a great visual, someone eating a sandwich with a big, ole piece of cauliflower hanging out of it.  So, what would happen if you smooshed the veggies in the gardiniera?  Maybe turned them into an aioli?  Next decision, what kind of bread, meat and cheese?  The roasted peppers and the gardiniera aioli screamed Italian.  So, Italian it was. 

Saturday night I made a tomato tart that was pretty much a bust.  It looked gorgeous but the crust was gummy and I thought the filling needed a little oomph.  But, it was a Todd English recipe so I was convinced that it was salvageble.  The original recipe called for baking it in an 8" cast iron skillet but I wanted to use a tart pan since my 8" cast iron skillet is rather a wreck.  So, the idea was to make another on Sunday and pre-bake the crust.  That tart was halfway done - pre-baked and the ingredients ready to go - when I got around to reading the instructions on the Mezzetta site.  Big oops.  The contest was over on the 6th.  That meant I needed to make the sandwiches NOW and get the recipe entered NOW.  Well, fine then, we'd have the sandwiches for dinner and the tart for breakfast.  Problem solved.  Well, except for the fact that Connie whined that he couldn't have slices of happiness for two days in a row.  (I'll update the blog on those treats shortly.)

Italian Garden Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 heaping cup gardiniera vegetables, drained
1/2 c Hellman's olive oil mayonnaise
2 ciabatta buns
8 slices genoa salami
6 slices capicola
4 slices provolone cheese
roasted red and yellow peppers

Directions:

Put the vegetables in the bowl of a food processor

Process until they're crushed. 

Add the mayonnaise and process until you've got a slightly chunky aioli.

 

Toast the ciabatta buns.  Smear the cut sides with the aioli.

Layer on the meats, cheese and peppers.  Start with the salami, then half the provolone,

then the peppers

Then the other half of the provolone, then the capicola. 

You're using that order try and keep the peppers from slip-sliding away while you're eating the sandwich.  The melty cheese will envelope them...

Either wrap the sandwiches in foil and bake at 350 for about 15 min or grill them in a skillet on dry heat until the cheese melts.