Grilled Mortadella Subs with Pan Fried Sweetbreads
The Are You Garbage? guys come by for grilled mortadella subs piled on stracciatella with fresh pesto and Calabrian chili, plus a side of crispy pan fried sweetbreads. Between bites: the reality show moment that almost ended Bert's career, a Paul Reiser story, an Are You Garbage movie set in an IKEA, and a $10,000 international candy challenge.
Mortadella Subs
Ingredients
- 3 Italian sub rolls or hoagie rolls, sliced in half
- 15-20 slices mortadella, thin sliced
- 15 oz stracciatella
- 3 tsp Calabrian chili, chopped, in olive oil (or crispy chili oil if you're sensitive to spice)
- 2½ cups basil leaves, packed
- ½ cup parsley leaves
- ½ cup pine nuts
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- ¼ cup Pecorino Romano, grated
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 sprigs oregano, fresh
- Flaky salt and pepper
Steps
- Add basil, parsley and pine nuts to a food processor, pulse 2-3 times to break them down.
- Add garlic, lemon zest, Parmesan and Pecorino Romano; pulse again several times to combine, scrape down the sides with a spatula.
- With the food processor running, slowly add the olive oil in a thin stream. Take your time, adding it slowly allows it to emulsify.
- Season with flaky salt and plenty of black pepper and set pesto aside in a bowl.
- Fold and scrunch the mortadella slices into bunches and thread onto 3 skewers, pushing them up against each other to fit 5-7 slices on each skewer, filling the skewer up generously. You want them to look like a kebab skewer ready for grilling.
- Place a large cast iron skillet (large enough to fit your skewers in) over medium heat, add four tablespoons of butter to the skillet and when it melts, add the oregano sprigs.
- Sauté the skewers of mortadella in butter until lightly browned and crisp on all sides, turning regularly with tongs for about 6-8 minutes. Remove and set aside on a sheet tray or plate.
- Turn the heat to low, remove the oregano sprigs.
- Add a little more butter to the skillet and place two halves of the subs, cut side down, in the pan and toast for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Generously slather the bottom sides of the subs with stracciatella and the top half with pesto; drizzle a little oil from the Calabrian chilis over the stracciatella (or chili crisp if you're sensitive to heat, as Calabrian chilis are generally very hot).
- Slide the mortadella off the skewers onto the stracciatella, close and enjoy!
Pan Fried Sweetbreads
Ingredients
- 2 lbs veal sweetbreads
- Milk for soaking
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp celery salt
- 1 tsp Old Bay
- ½ tsp cayenne
- 1 cup AP flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1-2 cups vegetable oil for frying
- Salt and pepper
Steps
- Soak the sweetbreads in water or milk in the fridge at least 8 hours.
- Drain sweetbreads in a colander and rinse very well with cold water.
- Make an ice bath of cold water and ice in a large bowl. (If using chicken livers, just rinse them, you don't need an ice bath.)
- Place the sweetbreads in a saucepan; add enough water to cover them by about 1-2 inches.
- Add a teaspoon of salt. (If using chicken livers, skip this step.)
- Place the saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Turn it down to a simmer and simmer for 3 minutes; turn off the heat and use a slotted spoon or pasta scoop to transfer them to the ice bath. (If using chicken livers, skip this step, they don't need to be blanched.)
- While they're cooling, mix garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, Old Bay, cayenne and celery salt in a bowl.
- Add two tsp of this mixture to a large bowl and add the buttermilk; stir to combine.
- Remove the sweetbreads from the ice bath onto a cutting board. Use a small knife and your hands to remove any membrane, veins, stringy bits and pull or cut the sweetbreads apart into chunks about the size of a chicken nugget.
- Transfer pieces to the buttermilk mixture bowl; gently stir to coat them in the mixture.
- Place the flour and cornstarch in a large bowl; add the rest of the spice mix and stir or whisk to combine.
- Get out two wire-rack-lined sheet pans.
- Place a Dutch oven with a few inches of vegetable oil in it on high heat to warm up; use a thermometer to check the temp until 325-350°F.
- Dunk buttermilk-coated sweetbreads into the flour mix to coat well; place on a wire-rack-lined sheet pan.
- Fry each one for 3-5 minutes until well golden and crisp, in 2-3 batches so you don't overcrowd the oil.
- Remove each batch to the second wire rack sheet tray; season with salt and pepper.
- Serve immediately with lemon wedges.