There are two camps in the spaghetti sandwich world; those who have always wanted to do it and those who have and now live better lives. When you are served a spaghetti dinner, you often get a slice of bread with it. I think it’s to mop up the sauce, but us food lovers usually end up with a half sandwich. And we love it.
I posted a pic of a basic spaghetti sandwich recently and it was received quite well. So I thought it’s time to elevate the spaghetti sandwich to the next level, Hungry in Houston style. These sandwiches are usually made with left-over spagetti, but since I had no left overs, we are doing it all.
Ingredients:
You can use any sauce you like – homemade, jarred, whatever. If you used jarred, crank it up a bit by adding your own seasoning, please.
Here what I have, but its totally up to you:
- Rosemary sourdough bread
- Butter
- Fresh grated parmesan
- Mozzarella (dont ever buy pre-shredded)
- Garlic
- Spaghetti noodles
- Spicy Italian sausage
- Fresh grated Italian seasoning
- Ground red pepper
To prep:
- Mince the garlic, shred the mozzarella, and shred the parmesan with a zester
- Heat the spaghetti sause, add the Italian seasoning and red pepper to taste. Let simmer, reducing, until the sauce is thick – you don’t want messy runny sauce in a sandwich
- Boil the noodles until your preferred tenderness, then strain – leave in strainer to remove all excess water
- Cook Italian sausage according to directions. Let rest and slice down the middle so it fits on the sandwich better.
- Sear the inside of the sausage on high for one minute.
The bread – the secret:
What we want to do is create a garlic bread, but since this is a sandwich, we are going to do it grilled cheese style.
Heat a skillet on medium- Take a stick of butter and paint the skillet with a liberal amount of butter – remember this is a garlic bread, its supposed to be buttery
- Add the minced garlic and then the shredded mozzarella to the pan
- Place the bread on to the cheese, butter and garlic and grill it for about a minute to create a garlic cheese crust
- Warm the end on the stick of butter by placing in the tip in the skillet, then brushing the top side of the bread
- Once you have the garlic cheese crust, flip the bread and grill that side until a light golden brown
Construct:
- Plate the grilled garlic toast so the cheese side will be the INSIDE of the sandwich, the outside pieces should be the golden buttery sides
- Scoop a nice portion onto the cheese crust
- Layer the Italian sausage on top of the spaghetti
- Top with parmesan
And you have the ultimate epic spaghetti sandwich – its a spaghetti dinner in an amazing sandwich. Stay hungry, Houston. What off the wall sandwiches do you make?
