In our house we make pizza from scratch on the regular, but sometimes I want the satisfaction of pizza without the fuss.
Usually that means delivery, but why get inferior pizza when a superior pizza sub can be made faster than it takes for the delivery guy to show up? Especially since we’re still working through the leftovers of my last trip to Eataly.
Hoagie buns? Check. Shredded onion? Check. Salami? Olives? Check. Super melty scamorza? Check.
All that’s missing is the tomato sauce. Easy enough. I put a pint of cherry tomatoes on a pyrex pie plate and drizzle them with a hint of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. In the middle of the pyrex plate, I place a whole garlic bulb, top sliced off to expose the cloves, drizzle that with olive oil and salt, then wrap it in foil.
That goes in the oven at 350 F for 40 minutes. I let everything cool down, whip out my hand blender, and it’s time to blitz the tomatoes, 1 tbsp tomato paste, and two cloves of roasted garlic.
This is my go-to homemade pizza or pasta sauce. It can be made with cherry tomatoes or plum tomatoes. It’s usually a Sunday roasting chore that pays off throughout the week for me.
The rest of the job now is simply building my pizza sub then letting the oven do its magic. I cut open two hoagie buns. They’re the base for my subs. Then I smear the pizza sauce on all four open buns and add my thinly shredded onions.
I want a meat sub and a veggie sub, so on the bottom of sub #1, I lay down a salad of olives and sundried tomatoes (I used this salad in my Italian hoagie last week, so this is a great way to use up the leftovers). On the bottom of sub #2, I make the leftover salami from my Italian hoagie the star of this pizza sub.
Everything gets topped with the leftover scamorza cheese, roughly torn in pieces. The olive sub gets extra cheese because I don’t want the olive salad to dry out but I’m OK with the salami crisping up a bit.
Into a 400 F oven she goes, for 10 minutes (babysit it). Everything’s looking good except I want a bit of browning on my cheese, so I blast the top with a quick broil (watch that like a hawk). Pull it out of the oven, admire your handiwork for a few seconds, then let the top and bottom of your buns reunite with their bottom half for a marriage made in heaven.
Crispy bun, hot homemade tomato sauce, the sharp contrast of salami, olives, onions. It’s a match made in heaven. And that melty cheese? Divine. The difference between my Italian hoagie and my pizza subs—veggie and salami—couldn’t be more stark. It’s the pizza sub that stands out.
Trish Hennessy
A Year in Sandwiches 