Alright, so I stole this recipe (and modified it slightly) from my friend and hilarious mom blogger, Katey, aka The Mother Octopus. Turns out she also stole it and modified slightly from Mary-Alice over at Food Network. So the moral of the story is: we’re all a bunch of thieves.
I’ve heard this dip is kind of like eating an Italian-American Combo sandwich in one big spoonful. And that was when I was sold.
The dressing is delicious and gets mixed in with the veggies and meat, then served with bread for dipping. The original recipe actually makes it in a bread bowl, but I decided to meet halfway on this and hollow out a baguette. FYI – Italian bread is the way to go, because it’s bigger and has more room for the filling/dip, but of course my supermarket didn’t have Italian bread that day. So I have a lot of sub dip leftover and I am not upset about it. It tastes even better the next day.
Now, you might be thinking “I can just make an Italian/American hero instead of chopping all of that up”. Well guess what? IT IS NOT THE SAME. This makes it taste different and wonderful. AND it’s actually easier to eat than a standard sub because you can get your mouth around it and the meat won’t slide out the back of the bread when you take a bite. You know what I’m talking about.
In terms of the cold cuts, you can use whatever you want but I do NOT recommend American cheese or Swiss for this. You want a solid cheese (in terms of texture), something that has a bit of a sharp bite, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, doesn’t melt or get soggy. American cheese has its purposes but it needs to sit the fuck down on this one. You think this is a game?!
Another thing I recommend? Letting it sit in the fridge for a few hours to really let the flavors come together. The mayo dressing just soaks into everything wonderfully and it becomes like a chopped up antipasto salad. You can use romaine lettuce too, by the way, as I have done that many times and it holds up just fine.
In terms of the bread/serving suggestion, I usually just slice up some Italian bread and let people spoon the dip onto the bread themselves, but for presentation purposes, obviously you can scoop out the bread like I did in these photos and serve it that way. I would suggest making pre-cut slices before you do so it’s a bit easier for people to pick up a piece!
Happy dipping!
Italian-American Sub Dip
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 3/4 head chopped/shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 large tomato, seeded and diced
- 5-6 pepperoncinis, diced
- 4 oz deli sliced black forest ham, sliced
- 4 oz deli sliced roasted turkey, sliced
- 4 oz deli sliced genoa salami, sliced
- 4 oz deli sliced roast beef, sliced
- 8 oz provolone, cubed or sliced
- 1 large Italian bread, sliced (or scooped out if serving like the photos)
Dressing
- 3/4 cup mayo
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp sweet or spicy relish (I only had sweet)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions
- Throw all the chopped, sliced, cubed, diced ingredients into a large bowl.
- In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the dressing together and then pour over the meat and veggies. Toss to combine until everything is well coated.
- Hollow out the inside of the bread, then slice it crosswise. Push back together so it looks like one big hero. Spoon the sub dip into the hollowed out portion of the bread. Sprinkle with a little more oregano and boom! TOUCHDOWN.
