The roast pork sandwich is the other “classic” sandwich coming out of Philadelphia, the other of course being the iconic cheese steak. I’ve actually had the roast pork sandwich at DeNic’s in the Reading Terminal Market, which is touted to be one of the best in PHL.

I thought it was so-so, because I don’t particularly care for wet sandwiches and I thought that the excess of provolone detracted from the pork and the broccoli rabe (rapini).

So why bring it up? Because rapini was on sale and I just had to pick up a bale of the stuff before promptly forgetting to eat it.

I was also scribbling to my pal Amy about her constantly being busy and I couldn’t make comments about lack of blogposts without having some updated content of my own (pot calling kettle black etc etc).

So, rather than stuff ravioli or have a very large vegetable side, I decided to go get a pork roast and redo the sandwich which omitted the elements I didn’t like. And with nicer bread, ‘cos upon reflection I realize I don’t like the bread that the Philly pork sandwich and cheese steak use either. I don’t need blah bread (this isn’t the home turf of the Westons and I know James Maguire) and since I can get good bread without having to bake it myself or ensconce myself amongst the Plateau-ites, I may as well use good bread and save some of the anger management.

Ingredients

• 1 pork roast (classic roast pork sandwich uses leg/ham, I used loin roast), approx 2 kg/4.4 lbs
• onions
• herbes de provence
• rapini, cleaned, peeled and cut into shorter lengths
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 dried Thai chili peppers
• crusty bread (I used a Parisienne from Boulangerie Le Pain dans les voiles)
• glace de viande (approximately 30 mL / 2 oz)
• apple cider
• apple cider vinegar
• apricot jam

Preparation

Coat the top of the pork roast with herbes de provence, salt and cracked pepper. Let sit 2 hours at room temperature to bring up internal core temperature of pork. Slice onions and place in the middle of a roasting pan to make a cushion for the pork roast. Preheat oven to 177ºC / 350ºF. Add 100 mL / 3.5 oz each water and apple cider to bottom of roasting pan. Set up a probe thermometer and roast pork until internal temperature reads 66ºC / 150ºF (approximately 1.5 hours depending on oven; add small amounts of liquid to maintain a moist roasting environment). Remove roast from pan, tent with foil and leave in a warm spot. Remove onions from pan and reserve.

Add additional water to deglaze bottom of pan and transfer to a small pot. Add the glace de viande and reduce this liquid, adjusting with cider, cider vinegar, jam and seasonings to create a pan sauce to taste.

Near the end of the roasting time, sauté rapini with garlic and chili peppers.

Service

Open the bread loaf as desired (cut all the way through, make slices, open like a hot dog bun, whatever turns your crank).

Thinly slice the pork roast. Dip slices into the pan sauce to coat the slices and also to warm them up slightly. Place slices into bread.

Top with rapini as desired. Add reserved roasted onions as desired. Spoon over additional sauce and serve immediately.

Notes

The Parisienne from Le Pain dans les voiles is slight too wide a loaf to work well with this sandwich, and it’s far too large to make one sandwich. Then again, it’s not like I’m going to eat a giant sandwich at any one sitting, but cutting the Parisienne into more manageable pieces sort-of detracts from the experience and also loses the all-important end pieces. I think their batard would have been a better option as a single-portion size so I’ll have to get those for the next time.

As for the sandwich fillings themselves, I like this version better since I can control what the sauce tastes like and I can control what my rapini is going to be like as well. Hand-cutting the pork results in a more toothsome slice of oink thanks to the thicker slice and not using the leg/ham affords a less oinky flavor.

For those needing wanting to add cheese like DeNic’s sandwich, they hand-cut pieces of Provolone from a large block. Regular Provolone would be kinda “meh” but a Provolone piccante could be nice. I think this could also work pretty well with Tomme de Grosse Île, Comté, or even Jarlsberg for those wanting the mild route. At this point it no longer resembles an Italo-American sandwich but one doesn’t need to be a culinary Luddite who’s hidebound by tradition.

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