Perfect minis for a party, these sandwiches are layered with provolone cheese, black forest ham, salami and your choice of Italian cold cuts, such as hot capocollo or mortadella, dressed with creamy Italian dressing, lettuce, tomatoes and olives, if you like.
Mini Italian Sandwiches
Now, first caveat before I get lectured, this is not intended to be any kind of authentic Italian sub or hoagie. There was a pizza joint near my Biloxi apartment many many years ago, and I was addicted to one of their menu sandwiches, called the Mona Lisa.
Like a muffuletta, I could get one of those and eat on it for days.
I can't recall if the restaurant was Sicily's Pizza or something else that was in that building before them, but I really loved that sandwich.
I have no idea how it got the name, but it was pretty much made up of the basic meats that one would consider to be on a classic Italian sandwich, except that instead of being dressed in an olive oil vinaigrette, it was dressed with a creamy Italian dressing.
Just for the sake of convenience to make it a "recipe," and considering it's Super Bowl weekend, I wrote it for 12 mini sandwiches, but of course you can adjust that to your own prep method.
For the smaller oblong hoagie type of rolls, you'll need to ask the deli to slice you one slice for each sandwich of provolone cheese, black forest ham, salami, and your choice of any Italian cold cut.
I used hot capocollo on half of the sandwiches and mortadella on the others. For a larger po'boy type of roll you'll probably need 4 slices of each, or for smaller dinner sized rolls, you'll probably only need a half slice each.
These would be a great addition to any party, including your Super Bowl table, whether you go large and slice, or make them on smaller, individual buns, and if you prefer more of a take on a muffuletta, make or pick up some olive salad while you're at it. Here's how to build them.
First preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. so we can warm the sandwiches up and melt the cheese. To build the sandwich I used a small hoagie style of oblong roll. Use whatever you like. Place one slice of provolone on the bottom half of each of the rolls.
Top that with a slice of a good ham. I used black forest ham.
Add one slice of your favorite traditional Italian cold cut. I put hot capocolo on half of my sandwiches and mortadella on the other half, but choose whatever you like. Some other good choices might be sopressata, prosciutto or pancetta, but I would suggest only one per sandwich. Italian cold cuts are strong in flavor, and too many flavors with the rest of the meats on this sandwich, tends to be a bit too overpowering to me.
And last, top with one slice of salami.
Put the tops on, place sandwiches on a baking sheet, cover tightly and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes to warm the meats through and melt the cheese. Looks like I forgot to snap a picture of the foil covered sandwiches, but you get the drift, right?
Remove from the oven, uncover and dress sandwiches with sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper, Italian seasoning, and a drizzle of a homemade or commercial creamy Italian dressing.
Top with shredded lettuce, sliced black olives if you like them (I do!) and drizzle a little more dressing on top.
Replace sandwich tops and transfer to a serving platter. Put any remaining dressing in a cruet or squirt bottle to serve at the table.
It's certainly not traditional, but I also like to add pickled onions to mine. If you're serving these as a party food, you can offer those or some very thinly sliced raw onion on the side for the onion lovers - sweet, yellow or purple are all good.
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