A red onion that I slice super thin on a mandoline and then quick pickle them with some rice wine vinegar, a pinch of salt and sugar and a splash of water.
And then I set up shop and invite whoever is around.
The more I’ve done it, the more I’ve learned. When I first started assembling homemade heroes, I delicately stacked the meats and fixings like a deck of cards. And, don’t get me wrong, it was tasty. It allowed the ribbons of meat and confetti of shrettuce to breathe a bit.
Ted Cavanaugh
But a concerned, sub-obsessed reader DMed me after watching a video of me making these heros. He pointed out that the proper way to make an Italian hero was to employ what I’ll call the horseshoe method.
First, slice the roll, but not all the way through, so it lies flat. Then you lay the various, thinly sliced meats like you’re tiling a floor. Then comes equally thinly-sliced provolone cheese, layered with the meats. (Although, as one of my Instagram followers pointed out, I should place the cheese on the outside so it doesn’t get bunched up in the middle.) You pile on the shrettuce and shaved onions and douse them with some oil and red wine vinegar (don’t be stingy), and hit ‘em with a shake or two of dried oregano.
Then you fold the whole thing over onto itself so it creates a horseshoe shape, the fixings on the inside so they don’t make the bread all soggy, the meats on the outside so they don’t form into a dense ball in the interior. And, oh yeah, I do like a slick of mayo with some Calabrian chile spread or chopped pickled peppers on either side of the roll. I know, I know—mayo.