The Deli Case at Garage Buona Forchetta, and Anthony Bourdain’s Favorite Sandwich

Garage Buona Forchetta is not just a destination for pasta and pizza. The deli case is a treasure trove of unique ingredients. I like to buy guanciale, which is salt-cured pork cheek, for my pasta, Gricia, Amatriciana, and Carbonara, three of Rome’s four famous pastas. 

I purchase hard salami for the kids and can’t get enough of the spicy soppressata. We eat those solo; nothing else is needed. Prosciutto is a favorite. Sometimes, I fry it up in the morning instead of bacon and pair it with good toasted bread and an heirloom tomato. When asparagus is in season and pencil thin, I like to wrap a few spears in prosciutto and fry them up. I know that is very yesterday’s news, but the taste is undeniable when done correctly. 

One of the deli meats is a departure from the rest as it is softer, almost silky, when cut paper-thin. I am talking about mortadella, a cured pork sausage that originated in Bologna, Italy. It makes sense that it originated in Bologna, as it is a very fancy, high-end bologna, unlike the Oscar Myer stuff that Gen Xers were raised on. 

It recently came to my attention that Anthony Bourdain had a favorite sandwich. I  watched him make it on TV and have been threatening to make one ever since. I was feeling a personal connection to this recipe, so I pulled the trigger this past weekend and walked to Garage Buona Forchetta to shop.

Anthony’s favorite sandwich is a high-end version of a fried bologna sandwich. This sandwich requires a good Italian roll, mortadella, provolone, good Dijon mustard, and a delicious mayonnaise. Condiments matter. I use Grey Poupon or Maille for mustard, the latter being my first choice. When it comes to mayonnaise, I will settle for Hellmann’s in a pinch, but we are a Duke’s household, and I try never to run out of this tangy Southern treat. 

The plan was to make sandwiches at home and then head up to see the vintage car show [MotorCars on MainStreet] that happened in town last Sunday. I had four people to feed, so I bought a pound of mortadella and a half pound of provolone, all sliced thin. This amount made six miniature versions of this now-famous sandwich. I used small Italian sesame seed rolls I had picked up in Little Italy at Mona Lisa’s. Six small sandwiches were the perfect amount for a light lunch, as these little flavor bombs are rich, and I max out at two if I am hungry. 

To make these sandwiches, you make little piles of twisted-up mortadella, about three slices per pile. You want some volume, so don’t simply fold or lay flat. Take these piles and fry them in a pan with some olive oil. Then flip, when the first side gets golden brown. This is when you put on the provolone and allow it to melt. I used two slices per pile, as the cheese was sliced thinly. Once the cheese is melted, remove the bundles from the pan, add in a pat of butter, and toast your bread. 

The bread gets a nice smear of mayo on one half and mustard on the other, be generous. Anthony would stack two or three of these piles to make a single sandwich, while I just used one per roll for a lighter bite. I could not find a video of Anthony making this sandwich, but this video of the sandwich being made is fun, and the creator feels the same way about Mr. Bourdain that I do. 

Please go check out the deli case at Garage Buona Forchetta and pick up some of their craft dried pasta and canned tomatoes while you’re there. Then, try making Anthony Bourdain’s favorite sandwich at home. Buon Cibo!

Note: I am unsure if anyone is currently making this sandwich in San Diego, but there is a killer fried bologna sandwich at the Wise Ox. I wrote about it in an article for the Times titled Destination Sandwich.