Method

STEP 1
Make up a mixture of beef and fennel flavoured Salsicci in roughly equal quantities, a healthy handful of stale Italian bread, a beaten egg and some creme fraiche.

Season immoderately with salt, black pepper, grated fresh garlic, garlic powder, fennel seeds and a little dried oregano.

Form the mixture into balls the size of large eggs.

STEP 2

Now make a very simple tomato sauce by dumping two tins of tomatoes into a wide baking tray along with 5 peeled cloves of garlic. Put the dish, uncovered into the oven and blast it on high heat until it starts to look a bit scorched on top. Now whip it out and process with a stick blender. Add olive oil and season to taste.

STEP 3

Drop in the meatballs and allow to sit for ages on the stove top, with a lid on at just the lowest simmer. The idea is to replicate food sitting on a hot table on a deli counter for a long day’s service, during which time the insides of the meatballs will poach gently while the outside will share flavours with a slowly reducing sauce.

STEP 4

When you can bear it no longer, half split an undistinguished white roll. Something about half the length of a baguette, firm enough to take a soaking, but soft enough not to put up much resistance to the teeth. Lift two or three of the meatballs out of the sauce, break them in half and lay them in the roll. Ladle over a load of sauce⁠ and top with slices of provolone. If the cheese doesn’t show sufficient signs of compliance, it can be encouraged to melt by flashing it under a grill.

STEP 5
In a heavy based sauce-pan heat a little olive oil cook the onions until soft then add the garlic chillies and saffron stir and cook for a further 1-2 minutes add the vinegar wine and paprika then add the tomatoes deglaze the pan with the water and then add this to the tomato sauce base.

The finished sandwich should not fit easily into your mouth in any direction.

Serve with a spare clean shirt!