Is a sandwich dinner? I don’t mean to open the floodgates of food-based existential inquiry, but it’s something I’ve wondered in my more navel-gazy moments. I’m always down for a grilled cheese to go with my tomato soup, or a fried egg on toast to nestle next to a salad, but those are more accompaniments than main events. Headlining sandwiches — bánh mìs, Cubanos, cemitas, tuna crunches or egg salads — I tend to save for lunch. And then there’s the whole “is a hamburger a sandwich” question, which I will not be wading into today.
Anyway: Ali Slagle’s sheet-pan Italian sub dinner is definitely a dinner. (It’s right there in the name.) All the elements are there: salami, red onions, pepperoncini and tomatoes, plus radicchio and chickpeas, crisped and caramelized in a hot oven and tossed in a classic oregano-garlic vinaigrette. Serve, as Ali suggests, with a big scoop of ricotta or a shower of Parm, and with extra vinaigrette for drizzling or swiping. You’ll also want bread, whether it’s torn in generous hunks or split open for sandwich making is entirely up to you and your dinner-sandwich philosophy.
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Sheet-Pan Italian Sub Dinner
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A roast chicken dish is always dinner, and Yewande Komolafe’s garlic chicken with guasacaca sauce is a bright, tangy, fantastic one. Guasacaca, a Venezuelan condiment, combines avocado, jalapeño, vinegar, lime, parsley and cilantro for a lush green sauce that’s paired here with roasted chicken quarters and carrots, though it’d be wonderful on seafood, meat, or grilled veggies. Or take this tip from Rosh, a reader: “Leftover guasacaca? Put it on grilled cheese with some pepper jack … thank me later.”
Let’s keep that sheet pan busy: Melissa Clark’s new miso-chile asparagus with tofu dresses singed, broiled asparagus stalks and tofu cubes in a pungent miso sauce sweetened with mirin and spiked with rice vinegar and chile. Her baked fish and chips is no less satisfying in terms of oomph and zip, the zip here coming from an easy homemade horseradish tartar sauce.
The weekend is almost upon us, which means we can start daydreaming about long, luxurious breakfasts. (Even if our actual weekend mornings are more hectic than hedonistic.) I’m aiming for a cartoonishly tall stack of Klancy Miller’s fragrant orange cardamom pancakes, crowned with chopped dates, a smear of orange marmalade and a heavy halo of maple syrup. If the reality is more a messy pile without the accompaniments, I’ll still be happy; those pancakes are dreamy enough.
And Christian Reynoso’s quick smoked salmon tart is a clever take on the classic bagel with lox, relying on store-bought puff pastry to form the base of this elegant and effortless brunch dish. It would also, as one reader mentions, be a very nice appetizer at a dinner gathering, or even dinner itself. In that case: Is a tart an open-faced sandwich, and is that dinner?
