The Sandwich Doctor is in, or...

I'm launching a business!

                                        

Please click on all the gorgeous photos to see them larger.

 Hello Eaters of all things Delecto!

I am on the cusp of launching a sandwich company!  Which, I've kind of wanted to do all my life. I think I must come by it naturally. My brother and I were the bless-ed children of an expert sandwich maker (and generally awesome cook). We were sent to school with the craziest of accoutrements to be sure that our sandwiches were eaten in top form.  I am still razzed to this day for my tunafish container (a thermos that my mother insisted was necessary to keep the mayonnaise fresh), for the painstaking way that I will dissect and rebuild a sandwich multiple times while eating it, (Turns out my brother does this too, but you have to if you want each bite to have the correct ratio of ingredients to one another!) and most affectionately, for submarine sandwiches that I would pass around the table so that all my friends would get one bite, (this came with genoa, capicola and provolone on the roll, a separate ziplock bag of lettuce, tomato and onion, and a tiny 2 oz tupperware of homemade salad dressing).  

You could say we were spoiled.  We were. We are. We were weird.  We didn't get very excited to go to Pizza Hut after a field trip. We usually wanted the adult food.  In Preschool when I was asked to draw a picture of my favorite food I brought up a scribbled mess of orange, yellow and red.  I couldn't remember what it was called so I tried to explain it to my teacher so she could label it.  She wrote down "cheese" after an elongated failure on my part to describe what it was.  I was very upset.  I went home and tried again with my mother, who said, "Oh, you mean Chicken Parmigiana?" YES! That was what I meant, look at the freaking picture people! Did it look like cheese?   It took me until college to become obsessed with the Chicken Parm Sandwich. 

Well, my brother went on to make breakfast for a living, so now I think it's time I tried my hand at selling these beauties.  They go on sale tomorrow at a street corner near you! (That is if you live near Santa Monica and Fairfax)  So wish me luck, please.  Also, make sandwiches at home. I'll show you how.  But if it's too much trouble, forget it, drop me a line and I'll do it for you!  

All these yummy pictures were taken by the handsome and talented Kevin Sharp of KSharp Photography.   And all of the sandwiches were eaten by Kevin, his lovely wife Gina, by me, and by Phin. Yummeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.........

                                     

Bread

The single most important factor for a superior sandwich.  I have a deep love of Breadbar, in Los Angeles for baguettes, and haven't found many bakeries that beat it. However, if you need convenience, Trader Joe's contracts with local bakeries too.  I find their par-baked breads are just spectacular if you don't over heat them.  Another nice trick is to paint them with water before you put it in the oven.  Let it cool off a little before you make your sandwiches. I know it's counter intuitive, we are led to believe that hot out of the oven is best, but bread actually benefits from cooling down a little. It will taste as close to fresh baked as you can generally get unless you live next to a bakery.  And then good for you, go buy their bread!

                                                    

This was Kevin's first lesson on lighting for me, the novice photographer.  Pretty salami, with eggplant, fennel, basil tomatoes, and red endive in the background.  Okay, now we cook.

The fennel is going in the oven and in the salad raw.  The red endive is for the italian sub dressing.

 These organic sugar plum tomatoes make a huge difference.  They're so sweet.  The roasted veggies are just tossed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  That's onion, zucchini, and fennel, which becomes just silky when roasted.

                                          

These veggie sandwiches are my favorite, which is amazing since I almost always go for the meats.  They have soft goat cheese and olive tapenade spread on either side with the roasted eggplant, zucchini, onion, fennel and fresh basil tucked inside.

A lot of Eggplant is fried to get the desired soft silky consistency, but eggplant soaks up oil like a sponge, and in my opinion it becomes way too greasy.  This eggplant was brushed with olive oil sprinkled with salt and roasted at 350.  It is hard to save enough for the sandwiches. It is that good. But one large eggplant will yield enough for probably 12 sandwiches so you can go ahead and eat 'em right off the sheet, you'll have plenty. Jeez, I love eggplant.

Onto the sopressata and provolone! This is the most like the sub my mom  makes. (I haven't been able to find a humanely raised capicola or that'd be in there too.  The sopressata is from Applegate Farms who are awesome)  I'm thinking of calling these  Bobbie's Special  They have a whole tossed salad of lettuces, tomatoes, onion, etc. like a giant down comforter draped all over the salami and cheese.  This way every bite has the perfect amount garlicky italian dressing.

Like so...

                   

Italian Tuna!

I love tuna sandwiches in all their forms and with the exception of raisins, I think almost anything tastes good in tuna. The first time someone put apples in my tuna I thought sure I would faint, but it was great, just like celery, onions, pickles, relish, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes and carrots. And I like mayonnaise just fine.  But no tuna can hold a candle to Italian tuna.  In Italy I learned to eat my tuna oily. Olive-oily.  They actually scoop up the tuna out of a beautiful oil drenched bowl of tuna, drop it onto your freshly baked bread and then continue to douse it with more dark green fruity olive oil.  My sandwiches are to go, so there'll be no olive oil dousing (just wait until I have a shop!)   But they are solid light tuna packed in olive oil and the only mayonnaise is a bit of lemon infused spread to hold it to the bread. This tuna is so good you could eat it directly out of the can.  But you don't have to, you can have it on a sandwich with tomato, lemon and endive.

                                         

So those are my three starter sandwiches: Bobbie's Special, Roasted Vegetables, and Italian Tuna. I'd love to hear your thoughts or suggestions and if you live in LA and you'd like Omnibus Delecto (me) to come to your work just let me know!

o.delecto@gmail.com