Tuscan Schiacciata

Schiacciata is a type of bread similar to focaccia, and in Tuscany they often use it to make sandwiches like these. Pro tip: Italian sandwiches are pretty great! #schiacciata #foccacia #caprese #mortadella #pistachio #burrata #arugula #prosciutto #gorgonzola #tuna #giardiniera

skiachata is a type of tuskcin bread it’s considered a kind of flatbread even though it’s well-leavened and relatively thick compared to other flatbreads it’s similar to maybe even a variant of faucashia pressed out into a welloiled pan and coated with good olive oil sprinkled with salt sometimes herbs and baked until crisply oily on the outside yet soft and moist within it’s thinner than faukatcha generally crisper surfaced and saltier yet still suitable for slicing open and filling with sandwich ingredients all the same i tried a couple of sketcha sandwiches at Lozano in Chicago’s River North neighborhood recently their sandwiches are named after cities in Italy and we ordered two of them the Roma with porquetta lemonoli roasted red peppers and arugula on skiachata and one of their more popular sandwiches the Modana with mortadella pistachio cream stretchella cheese chopped walnuts and arugula customized with skiachata instead of the usual faukasha for that sandwich now both of these sandwiches were very good the bitter crunch of the walnuts and sweetness of the pistachio cream combined to complement the mild mortadella and milky stretchella cheese nicely while the sweetness of the roasted red pepper and the bright acidity of the lemonoli added a bold note to the subtly fennel inflected porkiness of the porquetta and in both cases the skia was a suitable vehicle crisp and chewy tasting of olive oil and salt and all the recipes I found for sketcha bread definitely drove home the similarities between it and faukasha now I baked my sketcha in a tallsided roasting pan instead of a sheet pan and maybe it rose too high as a result ending up closer to fukasha than intended but the texture that crisp oiliness of the outer crust contrasting with the soft moist chewiness of the interior crumb that seemed spot-on and when I made my own sketcha sandwiches I started with a take on that mortadella and pistachio sandwich I’d liked so well at Lozano i par-boiled and peeled a pound of pistachios then pureeed them into a paste say that five times fast that I spread on the bottom half of a piece of skiachata i topped that with four thin folded over slices of mortadella half a ball of baratha and a good handful of arugula dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar there’s a lot to like here the creaminess of the baratha playing off the mild nutty mortadella accented by the sweetness of the pistachio paste and the bitter peppery arugula which itself was complimented by the fruiness of olive oil and the sweet tart balsamic vinegar there’s no big kick in the teeth flavor here like I often enjoy in a sandwich rather there are a lot of more subtle flavors interplaying and coming to a delicate balance my next skiatchata though did have bigger flavors with a base of chopped figs and gorgonola cheese topped with folded proch and more of that dressed arugula these were dried figs that I rehydrated briefly before using them in the sandwich and thus their flavor was more concentrated than a fresh fig but the texture less dense and chewy than a dried fig and they worked well alongside the salty pungency of the aged gorgenola all of this played well with the slightly funky flavor of the pushcido salty and nutty and earthy sliced thin and meltingly tender against this that same dressed arugula used in the previous sandwich was almost an afterthought yet welcome nonetheless in the way that a sandwich with big meats and cheeses kind of needs a hit of greenery to give the pallet a rest and pushcido is among my favorite of the cured meats and I’m a big fan of big blues like gorgenola both of these big salty funky flavors benefited from the sweetness of the fig and the balsamic vinegar and the skihati was a terrific bread to showcase these flavors but I had a feeling I could take those flavors even bigger yet with a fully loaded tuna sandwich now this is similar to some subs I’ve had from JP Graziano i started with a good quality tuna packed in olive oil in a jar that I bought at my local Italian deli now JP Graziano’s trick what makes their tuna subs the best in the game in my opinion is that they add in addition to the standard mayo minced celery and red onion chopped articho carts and on request hot jardinara as well now I built on to this already potent mix of my tuna salad by adding roasted red peppers and a strong flavored olive salad as well and I get it maybe you can’t imagine getting excited over a tuna salad sandwich no matter how good the tuna is no matter how much extra stuff gets mixed in i can understand that thought i I used to think the same way but this is a flavor bomb the enhancements to the tuna salad could be overwhelming but instead elevate this humble standard to something greater the briny bitter flavors of the olive salad and artichoke carts balanced against the sweetness of the roasted red peppers that capsin heat of the hot jardinara bringing an urgency to the flavor i can’t imagine eating tuna salad without jardinary in it anymore and I do recommend you try it but when it comes to Italian style sandwiches nothing beats the classic caprese at least to me it’s not the proper season for a caprese but my grocery store has been carrying some heirloom tomatoes recently that are better than I expect to see in April though still not anything like the glorious peak tomatoes of late summer the sweetness of basil and balsamic the fruiness of the olive oil amplifying that natural sweetness of a tomato while the creamy fresh mozzarella boosts its savory flavors with that slight tomato acidity and arugula of bitterness rounding out all those flavors it’s a complete sandwich and is perfect and adorment for this bread as anything could be