cook: porchetta sandwich

I still have porchetta from Friendsgiving, and so I thought I’d try to make an Italian version of a Vietnamese bahn mi and use the chicken liver truffle mousse (that I thought was going to put into a charcuterie board for the holiday)instead of French pate. Instead of hoisin sauce, I drizzled balsamic glaze on the sliced pork. Instead of pickled daikon radish, carrots and cucumber, I substituted giardinera and pepperoncini. 

And because I had no bomba sauce, I subbed it out for shatta. I used classic mayo too instead of Japanese kewpie. Oh yeah, I remembered too the sliced ham and instead of cilantro, I used a few basil leaves.

Of course, it's all piled into an Italian baguette roll.

Taste test? Meh. Unlike a Vietnamese bahn mi with loads more freshness and raw vegetables, I wish I had kept the porchetta sandwich simpler. And so the next day when I made the sandwich for Cecilia, I omitted the truffle mousse and piled on more pork instead. I still sandwiched meat into the bread with a generous slather of mayo and a generous drizzle of balsamic glaze. And just used a lighter hand with the giardinera and basil. There was still a bit of the porchetta seasoning on the pork. If you ate this sandwich in Rome, you would eat it even more simply. No condiments. Just the juicy and flavorful porchetta and the bread. Some day I'll get there with my porchetta. Watch out pork belly, here I come.