It’s now an official standard around here! As a lover of sandwiches, on my last outing yesterday I picked up two more packs of fine Italian mortadella, a large pack of Black Forest ham just for variety (and a pack of sliced Swiss cheese), another box of Sweet Baby Butter Leaf lettuce, and another loaf of bread. I already had tomato and red onion. Plus I have a pre-made roast beef and cheese sub. I’m in sandwich heaven!
I didn’t realize until I looked it up the other day that mortadella is basically a fatty bologna – bologna with bits of pork fat in it. This doesn’t put me off it at all, as the only reason bologna has a bad rep is that supermarkets abound with cheap, crappy versions of it. I learned years ago that bologna from an upscale deli like Pusateri’s is a great, quality sandwich meat, and real Italian mortadella is even better.
Now I’m tempted to try out Anthony Bourdain’s mortadella sandwich recipe. It’s basically like my beloved roast beef and cheese, but with mortadella. I don’t have provolone but it should work with Swiss.