Ruby Tuesday 07/13/2010

Tuesday the thirteenth. Not part of the vernacular like Friday is, so I won't be concerned with it. What is important is that it is Ruby Tuesday. A Meme started by Mary T/The Teach, who pens the Work of the Poet blog. Post a photo of something Red on Tuesdays, pretty simple, but if you need guidelines, check this out. Otherwise, pay Work of the Poet a visit and see some wonderful photographs and maybe read a few good stories. I like to tell a story of the picture I'm posting. Some folks do very well with their beautiful photographs, all with the Ruby Red theme.

My submission for this Ruby event is food. Well, not all the food, but a placement of one of the items in a real modern day traditional Chicago style sandwich. I'm not sure when and how it got started, but the Italian beef and sausage combo laced with sweet peppers is a favorite of mine when I take the trek back home.

I'm from Chicago. I was born there and lived there for the first twenty five years of my life. The hot dog joints, or beef joints as they are called, are commonplace to Chicago like the Philly beef stands are in Philadelphia. At these hot dog joints, the Italian beef sandwich is served. It can be upgraded, "Supersized" if you will, by adding a link of broiled Italian sausage. This is called a combo for the simplification of the word combination. I like mine with roasted sweet peppers on top. I like hot and spicy food too, but I don't care for the hot giardinara. The hot giardinara is often added to top this great sandwich. HERE is a very short video of a Chicago style Italian beef sandwich with giardinara on top. Giardinara, by the way, is hot or mild. It is vegetables in a vinegar brine. You can get that in jars all over the country.


Jars of Italian Giardinara

My submission photo, below the bread and bakery sign shots, was taken around Christmas last season. We had Chicago style Italian beef and sausage combos as a selection for dinner. The beef is thinly sliced and cooked for hours in a salt. pepper and garlic au jus. The sausage is grilled outdoors on a charcoal grill. The bread is also an Italian style and prominent around Chicago. Hard to find just the right kind of bun for a combo where I live. The drive is a mere six hours to get back into the "Circle of Flavor", as I call it, for the right kind of bread for this delicacy. For that matter, I want Gonnella brand bread and sandwich rolls for any salami sandwich I might be making as well.


Advertised as "Good Good Gonnella"


An end of a loaf of Gonnella bread

The sweet peppers are simply bell peppers that are roasted by slowly frying them in a large black well-seasoned cast iron pan. I like to start them in olive oil to get a few burnt spots on them, then turn down the heat and cover them and allow them to "roast" in the pan. They get soft and hold their flavor. In this case, I used roasted green and red peppers. Hence the Ruby Red in the shot. I will enjoy Christmas and home again just looking at this photo. And today, my sister arrives from Chicago for a visit. She'll bring with her Italian beef, Italian sausage, some Genoa salami and Gonnella bread from the neighborhood. We'll feast tomorrow when my brother loins us for a day long visit.


The sandwich is put together, then the au jus is spooned over and it soaks into the bread. You can pick it up for the first bites, but if you have done it right, your fingers are sticky and the bun is falling apart by the time you are near the end.

Bon Appetit

Ahhhh, the Rubiness of the peppers on this delicious Combo sandwich

Peace to all