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I'm smart, not like people say. There are certain sandwiches that sound too simple to matter. Anthony Bourdain had one of those sandwiches. But today, we're taking that beautiful greasy masterpiece outside. Anthony Bourdain's favorite sandwich was thin slices of mortadella, like cooked in a pan. So, the fat came out and yes, it got greasy and beautiful and then melted. provolone on that. Well, we're not doing that. We're using big thick ass slices of mortadella that we're going to do on the grill behind me. They're going to get crispy edges. The whole thing's going to be fantastic.
Yes, there will be provolone. Yes, there will be this the pepper spread that we're going to make. It's all going to be good. But look, by way of explanation first, that's mortadella. There's also baloney or bologona, however you want to say it. So, think of it this way. Mortadella is the more sophisticated version generally just made with pork. Bologna can be beef and chicken and pork, all that kind of stuff. This mortadella is the sophisticated cousin to the not sophisticated bologona. Okay, here's here's a good way to think of it. Your mortadella cousin wears fine Italian loafers. Your baloney cousin wears Crocs.
There you go. How's that? That should set it in your mind for you. Okay, it's very simple. This is heating behind me. I can't wait to get the mortadell on there. Let's make our little pepper spread. And then here's how we start. Oh, that was loud. This is jardinara. It's Italian pickled vegetables. You can see it comes in a jar. You can see there's cauliflower, there's celery, there's peppers, carrots. It's great. These are pepper and chinis. We want this and we want this cut up to go into here. We're going for chunky. And we'll add a little olive oil, splash of red wine vinegar, dried oregano, and some red pepper flakes and a little fresh ground
black pepper. And we mix. Come on. Oh boy. Here's why this is so good. The mortadella is rich and fatty. And this is going to cut that in the most beautiful way. And speaking of mortadella, here's the deal. If we throw it just on like this, it's going to want to curl up, which is not the worst thing in the world, but I want it to stay a little bit flatter. It probably will curl some, but we're going to help it not get too crazy by just making some small cuts around the edges like this. This is much like what my mother would do when she would fry salami, either in a pan or on the barbecue. You make those little cuts around it and it keeps it from cupping too much. And I can feel the greasiness of the little chunks
of fat in here, which by the way are not really in regular bologn. Regular bolognies like smooth consistency. Whatever they do, they take chicken beaks and necks and feet and without the beef and pork and turn it into a pink paste. Not with mortadella. Madella's got life and substance and fat. Right. The only other thing we need to do is give this guy a cut. So, we'll do that cuz we're going to give him a little heat, too. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it's grill time. And with the grill nicely warm, on we go. Oh yeah. So, we're looking for good char marks. We'll turn it, flip it, toss it, whatever we need to do. You know, it's already cooked, so yes, of
course, we're heating it through, but it's really all about the crisp that will enhance the flavor. This is the perfect example of heat changes things. Perfect. Let's see. It's been on about 15 seconds. Ah, looks like a slab of ham, which I suppose. Oh, it's all pork, so in some sense it is, but all right, we want a lot of that. Look at that. Okay, so on a crisping scale of 1 to 10, where I want this to eventually be, that's about a four. I want charred edges. Much more crisp. Much more crisp on this whole thing. But look, it's it looks like it's sweating. That's not
sweat. That's just fat coming out. Wow. Greatest sandwich ever. So, it's staying relatively flat, which is good. Without these little cuts around the edges, it'd go like that. You know, those are thick enough slabs. It definitely one would have been fine by itself. But listen, if we're going to honor the great Anthony Bourdain by redoing a version of his favorite sandwich, let's make it a sandwich. So, I'm just going to keep going till it's right in my crispy, gorgeous, burnt up edge wheelhouse. But you don't want your heat too hot cuz it'll burn up before it warms through and that would be tragic.
Let's look at this. Look it. And it's like it's starting to bubble up a bit. It's just fantastic. Okay, let's throw some cheese on, shall we? Go like this. Ah, proolone. Ah. All right, lid. Give it about a minute. And wow, we're there. All right, let's take these guys off. Gorgeous. And put this guy on. Max, you can flip sides and we'll build. This smells like a fresh bakery bun having just come off that grill. But that's not what's important. Here's what's important. And I'm going to use a little restraint here. A little mayo. See that? For me, that was a little You'd have to agree because I don't want it to be about that. But I do want just a little
moisture there. And I want it to help keep everything in place. And now this. And now our spicy deli pepper spread. Okay. Everybody happy? Because I certainly am. And now our mortadella. God, look at how big this is. You know what's going on top? Nothing. That's the way I want it. All right. One cut. Okay. That's everything I wanted it to be. This guy. That's my guy right there. It's Oh, holy god. It's juicy. Can you can see the It's dripping. What the flames have done to the mortadella is crazy. But exactly as I said, that pepper spread just cuts the fat because it's a pretty fatty slab of meat. Here's what I think of when I
have a bite of this. Let's say I was going on a trip, a work trip, I don't know, like a I'm off on a cooks tour to I don't know, parts unknown, and I'm I'm stuck with a layover at an airport and somebody offered me a taste of this Mortadella sandwich, I would have no reservations about ordering it again. See what I just did? I just used every Anthony Bourdain TV show name in one sentence to honor him. If this sandwich didn't honor Anthony Bourdain by itself, that sentence should. Damn it. This is good. Then I'm smart. Not like Anthony Bourdain. Sounds like that line from The Godfather. I'm smart. Not like people say. Fredo. Anthony. This is fantastic.
Anthony Bourdain. Sorry you're not here. You would have liked this. We've been happy to have made it for you. Kitchen confidential. I can't. Yeah.
