Cook's Country

♪♪ -"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook.

And we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

♪♪ -Today on "Cook's Country," Bryan visits the City of Brotherly Love and shares his version of Philadelphia pork sandwiches, I share the origins of Philly tomato pie, and Christie makes one for Julia.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

♪♪ -Philadelphia is a sandwich city.

Famous for its cheesesteaks and hoagies, you'll find some of the best sandwiches in the country here.

I met up with local food writer Kae Lani Palmisano to learn how sandwiches took over the City of Brotherly Love.

-Philadelphia is absolutely a city of sandwiches, but I really think it stems to the fact that Philadelphia is a working class city.

We have people who are hustling.

They are working really hard, and you need something that is fast to make.

You know, that's why the cheesesteaks, you know, we chop them up and you put them on the roll.

Same with the hoagies.

-Cheesesteaks get all the glory.

But I wanted to shine some light on Philly's unsung hero, the roast pork sandwich.

It's a combination of thinly sliced roasted pork, bitter greens, and sharp provolone layered onto a fluffy hoagie roll, and it's arguably the real standout of the Philly sandwich scene.

I met up with Joe Cook at Jaxx Steaks Taproom to learn what gave his roast pork sandwich that Philly edge.

Like many of the sandwich shops in town, Jaxx's has all the Philly favorites.

-Uh, we're just looking to put sandwiches, regular South Philly sandwiches, like pork, cheesesteak, stuff like that, with the combination of beers.

And we're mainly a neighborhood spot.

We take care of everybody around here.

-And while some sandwich shops top their roast pork with spinach, Joe prefers broccoli rabe.

And is there anything -- Is that broccoli rabe just braised with garlic and chili?

-It's garlic, hot pepper, oil, a quick blanch, and it goes through like that.

-The rabe added just the right balance to Jaxx's roast pork.

I think by virtue of the fact that the broccoli rabe has been cooked longer, to me, it comes across as less bitter.

-Mm-hmm.

-So you still get that slight bitterness coming through, but I don't think it's sharp as the -- the bright green.

-Agreed.

♪♪ -That's about as awesome as I thought it was going to be.

-Mmm.

-You what know I love?

When I get the juices dripping down my arm.

-Yes.

-I know I'm eating a good sandwich.

-This one, all of the flavors meld together really nicely into a South Philly symphony of a sandwich.

[ Both laugh ] -All the ingredients coalesce into one.

-Mm-hmm.

-Well, that sandwich was a strong start and whetted my appetite for more roast pork goodness.

It was time to get to the meat of the matter, the roast pork.

So I headed over to another local favorite, John's Roast Pork.

-So obviously everybody knows the cheesesteak from Philadelphia, you know.

But roast pork sandwich, it really is the hidden gem of the city.

-John Bucci is a third generation roast pork sandwich artist.

His family has been serving up this Philly classic since the 1930's, when his Italian grandfather first sold them from a wooden shack.

-People still in the neighborhood call it the Pork Shack, you know.

-The key to John's sandwich?

Lots of seasoning.

-I got a little of this.

Ah, we're not telling you.

[ Laughs ] -But with a little effort, I was able to pick up what John was putting down.

For the herbs, a lot of dried herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, a good hit of fennel and black pepper.

So the pork is really substantial in here.

The hearty, sesame crusted roll was the perfect vessel for holding in all those flavorful juices.

The Philly roast pork sandwich is a simple formula, but when done right, it's truly greater than the sum of its parts.

And while I love me a cheesesteak, I think the roast pork deserves consideration as Philly's top sandwich.

It's pretty good.

It's pretty great, actually.

♪♪ -Bryan, that looked like a really fun trip.

But I love a good cheesesteak, so I'm kind of suspicious whether this can replace it for me.

-Well, let me tell you, if you love cheesesteaks, you're going to love roast pork possibly even more than a cheesesteak.

-Alright, alright.

-Alright.

So we're going to start off with our seasoning rub for our pork.

The best places had an aggressively seasoned or well seasoned pork roast that was in the sandwich.

So we're starting off with a salt and herb rub.

We have a tablespoon of kosher salt here.

I'm going to add to that 2 teaspoons of dried oregano, 2 teaspoons of dried thyme.

And then we're going to add 2 teaspoons of fresh rosemary.

Alright, then we're going to add 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds and 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

A little mix with our baby whisk.

Alright, this is a 4 pound boneless pork butt, which of course comes from the upper part of the shoulder.

We're going to tie this at 1 inch intervals.

And that's just to keep it compact and nice and neat while it cooks.

-Okay.

-So I always like to start off by tying right in the middle.

And I go through once and then twice.

Then we'll come on the other side of that, about by 1 inch.

Okay, so we'll just trim our twine to about 1/2 inch or so.

And then rather than seasoning this pork on the board, I'm going to put it in the pot to start seasoning it.

That way anything that falls off of it just actually stays in the pot.

And it's going to cook with the pork.

-Very smart.

-I'll start on the back side, just kind of season all over.

When I was at John's Roast Pork and I was watching them work with the the pork shoulders that they boned out and they were seasoning, they put an immense amount of seasoning on those.

I think that was the difference, and it's why it was one of the best pork sandwiches I had because it was just so well seasoned.

Okay, so the pork is in there.

We're going to add 8 cloves of garlic that have been peeled.

And finally we're going to add 2 cups of chicken broth.

Now in Philadelphia a lot of these guys use a pork broth that they've made from the bones they've taken out of these shoulders.

And that simmers for a long time.

And they end up cooking the pork in that.

So it's got this really extra porky flavor.

It's a little bit more convenient for us to use chicken broth.

So that's what we're going to do.

So there's 2 cups, and we're going to take care to just pour it around and not over top so we don't wash any of the spice rub off the top of the pork.

So this is going to go into the oven at 300 degrees.

We've set the rack to the lower middle position.

And we're going to let it cook nice and slow for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until the pork hits 190 degrees.

190 is important because we want this pork to be tender but still slice well.

We don't want it to shred when we go to cut it.

-Alright.

No pulled pork.

-No pulled pork.

Tada.

Alright.

So again, we're going to look for 190 degrees.

So we're going to go right into the center of the pork.

191.

So we want to take the pork out of the broth, kind of shake it loose.

We'll drop it on this plate here.

Alright.

So we'll let it come to room temperature, which takes about an hour.

And we can throw it in the fridge for at least an hour.

But you could really refrigerate it for up to two days.

And actually the longer the better, because the more firm it is, the easier it is to slice it nice and thin.

-Nice.

-Okay.

And we're going to chill also this broth.

-Mmm.

-So I'm going to drop this into our liquid measuring cup here.

And so we're looking for 3 cups of liquid.

And we have that.

It's got a nice little fat cap on it too.

And the benefit of chilling this, again, overnight or up to 2 days, is that fat's going to solidify, and we can remove it before we make our final sandwiches.

In Philadelphia you can get your roast pork sandwich with either braised spinach like they do over at John's Roast Pork, or a lot of places use broccoli rabe.

And I kind of favor the broccoli rabe because it adds a nice bitterness to cut some of the richness of the sandwich.

So that's what we're going to do here today.

-Okay.

-I have 2 tablespoons of olive oil in here.

And I'm just going to slice up 3 cloves of garlic nice and thin.

Alright.

And we could throw this garlic into our olive oil.

We're going to put that over medium heat.

Let that slowly begin to brown.

And now we could talk broccoli rabe.

I'm a huge fan of broccoli rabe.

The thing about broccoli rabe is you want to wash it really well because it can come with a lot of sand stuck to it.

You don't want to get that grittiness when you eat the sandwich.

You also want to trim off this bottom bit here.

We're just going to trim those up.

And then we're just going to cut this into 1/2 inch pieces.

So I'm just going to run the knife right through it.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

It's going to get cooked down a good amount.

-Okay.

Alright, so we're looking for the garlic to get just brown around the edges.

Takes about 3 to 5 minutes.

And this garlic is about there.

So we could add all of our broccoli rabe.

[ Sizzling ] You know that water that clings to the leaves helps it steam a little bit, too, so... -Perfect.

-Even more reason to wash your vegetables.

And we're going to add 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and just a pinch of red pepper flakes.

So we're going to let this cook for a good 6 minutes.

And we're looking for the broccoli to get nice and tender and wilt down.

-Okay.

-Our broccoli rabe has been cooking for about 6 minutes.

It's still bright green, but it's nice and tender.

And we can go ahead and just add that to our bowl here.

Okay.

So we could set this aside.

-Alright.

-And now we're going to add our broth or cooking liquid to the Dutch oven here.

So you can see since we've refrigerated this how much fat has solidified on top.

And we can just use a spoon to break this and... -Pop the cap off.

-Pop the cap.

[ Laughs ] So we're going to add our broth to the Dutch oven.

-Mmm.

My goodness.

-We're going to bring this to a boil over high heat.

And while that's coming to a boil we could go back to our pork.

-Okay.

-At this time, it's fully chilled.

I'm going to take off these strings, and then I'm just going to split this lengthwise.

And we just want to slice this as thinly as possible.

Alright.

So our meat is sliced.

Reduce the heat to low on our broth that's now come to a boil.

And we're going to drop our meat into the pot.

This makes enough meat for at least 8 sandwiches.

-Okay.

-I'm just making 2 sandwiches here.

So we're going to pop a lid onto this and let it warm up for about 3 minutes, and we'll give it the occasional stir.

-Okay.

-One of the most important elements of a roast pork is a good quality bread.

So this is bread from Carangi's in Philadelphia.

It's -- It's a local bakery.

And you're looking for something that's nice and sturdy on the outside and really cottony on the inside.

So it absorbs a lot of the juice, but it doesn't have a blowout when you go to eat it.

So one of the things about buying a sandwich at one of these shops is they come wrapped in paper.

So you get this steamy hot pork in contact with the cheese, and everything gets melty and nice and beautiful.

Since we're not wrapping these sandwiches, we want to pop the bread in the oven with some of the cheese on there just to kind of expedite some meltiness.

So we'll just layer some sharp provolone.

-Mmm.

-We have a 450 degree oven, and the rack is set to the middle position.

We'll let these cook for about 3 minutes until the cheese begins to melt and the bread is warmed through.

-Great.

-The cheese is just beginning to melt.

-Mmm.

-These look delicious.

Now our pork is nice and warm.

-Gorgeous.

-So as you build these sandwiches, one of the most important elements is to build it over the pot.

So you can pick up all that jus and just layers in nicely.

-Oh.

-Alright, we'll top it with broccoli rabe.

Oh, man.

That is a good looking sandwich.

Alright, this is almost -- almost too big to manage, but I'm going to power through it.

-Yeah, I'm right there with you.

-[ Laughs ] -Mmm.

-That is without a doubt one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten.

-The pork is unbelievably tender.

The spices, that rosemary, just that little bit of rosemary, it's just there underneath.

But the broccoli rabe, it's just that gorgeous bitterness.

Not too assertive.

It's just enough.

Even the bread -- it's soft on the interior, but it doesn't turn to mush, because you put a lot of jus inside of the sandwich.

-Yeah.

-I think this is incredible.

It might be my new favorite sandwich.

You got to make this fantastic sandwich from Philadelphia and "Cook's Country."

And it starts by braising pork butt with spices and lots of garlic, until tender, sauté broccoli rabe with more garlic and red pepper flakes, then bake sub rolls with provolone before topping with the pork and the broccoli rabe.

So from "Cook's Country" and the City of Brotherly Sandwiches, it's Philadelphia pork sandwiches.

♪♪ -Philadelphia is home to one of the largest Italian-American communities in the country.

Italians began immigrating to the City of Brotherly Love in the late 19th century, driven from their homes by political turmoil and a lack of opportunity.

By 1910, more than 75,000 Italians lived in Philadelphia.

Back in Italy, there was a long tradition of campanilismo.

"Campana" is the word for bell in Italian, and campanilismo is the idea that loyalty only extends to those who hear the same village church bells.

Many Italian communities kept this insular attitude even after moving to America.

The Philadelphia tomato pie is a product of this hyper regionality.

The dish is a variation of the Sicilian sfincione palermitano.

And while both versions of the pie feature a chewy focaccia-like crust and simple tomato topping, the Sicilian version is often garnished with briny ingredients like capers, anchovies, and olives.

At "Cook's Country," we honor the delicious traditions of the old country with our recipe for Philadelphia tomato pie.

♪♪ -Tomato pie is a classic Philadelphia side dish served at restaurants and backyard barbecues alike, and Christie is here to tell us more.

-Think of this as a flavorful, soft and chewy bread dipped in a sweet, tangy tomato sauce.

Super savory.

Really delicious.

-I love it.

-And part of the key is this crust that we're making.

So I'm going to start with 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour.

That's 12 1/2 ounces.

And we're going to do all the work in the stand mixer.

-Mm-hmm.

-I also have 3/4 of a teaspoon of instant or rapid rise yeast.

-Mm-hmm.

-We're just going to give this a little spin on medium speed to get everything incorporated, for about 10 seconds.

I'll have it on medium speed.

This is a cup of water, room temperature water.

Now, we're not going for a really big crumb.

-Oh.

-So we don't need a ton of water.

-Okay.

-And I have 1 1/2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

It'll take about 30 seconds until I don't see any dry flour remaining.

Okay.

I don't see any dry flour.

-Looks good.

-Now we're just going to give the flour and the water a chance to hang out together in a step called autolyse.

And that's just going to give the flour a chance to absorb that water.

And I'm going to cover this to keep it nice and moist in there.

And we'll let it stay here for 10 minutes.

-Okay.

-Alright.

Now that we've waited our 10 minutes... -It's had a nice little nap.

-It has.

Now we can add our salt.

This is 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt.

And you don't want to add that before the autolyse, because it can get in the way of the flour absorbing all of that moisture.

I'm going to let this run on medium speed for about 6 to 8 minutes, until we have a nice, cohesive ball that's sticky and satiny, and it clears the sides of the bowl, but it might just stick to the bottom a little bit.

Alright, now I have a 13 x 9 inch non-stick baking pan, and we want to use a pan rather than a glass dish because we do want to get some nice browning.

We're not really going to get a hard or super crispy crust, but we want to make sure we have some nice color.

-Okay.

-I've sprayed the pan with vegetable oil spray so that the dough doesn't stick.

And I like to use a bowl scraper.

I am going to cover it.

I have that same piece of plastic that I used earlier.

And then we're going to let this sit at room temperature, nice non-drafty spot, until this has doubled in size.

And that will take about an hour and a half depending on how warm your room is.

But that's what we want to happen.

We're going to give it time to relax and build some flavor.

-Okay.

-While the dough is rising, we can work on the sauce.

Now this is really easy, but super flavorful.

I have 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil heating up in this small saucepan over medium heat.

And I'm going to start to build some flavor with some chopped onion.

This is 1/4 of a cup of finely chopped onion.

-Just a little.

This is about 1/4 of an onion.

-And we're going to cook this until it's softened.

We want to make sure those onion pieces are nice and soft and actually just starting to brown a little bit.

We'll cook these 3 to 5 minutes.

We're just starting to get some color on the onions, which is great.

I'm going to add some garlic.

This is 2 cloves of minced garlic.

I'm adding 2 teaspoons of dried oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

-Mm-hmm.

-We'll just cook this until we can start to smell it.

You know, 30 seconds.

Now I'm going to add a 15 ounce can of tomato sauce.

Now this sauce is also traditionally a little on the sweet side.

So I have a tablespoon of sugar that I'm going to add just to make sure that we're right on our game.

So we'll bring this up to a boil.

It's just about there.

And then I'll turn the heat down, and we'll let this simmer until we have about a cup and 1/4 of sauce, and that's going to take somewhere between 8 and 10 minutes.

But we want to make sure that it's thick enough to be spreadable and to really give us a nice coating from edge to edge when we have our dough all ready.

-Makes sense.

-Julia, the dough has been resting for an hour and a half, so this is nice and relaxed now.

It's definitely doubled in size.

Now it's time to shape it.

I'm just going to give my hands a little dip so they don't stick.

Now I'm going to spread the dough out from the center.

I want to work this out to fill the entire pan, making a real effort to push it into the corners.

We're going to cut it into rectangular pieces.

And to have a good rectangle you need some right angles.

-Nicely done.

-Thank you.

But we're not done.

So I'm going to cover this back up again.

Now this time it's really more about building flavor.

We only have two components in this dish -- the dough and the sauce.

So we want to make sure that we're maximizing flavor in both areas.

And that's what another hour and a half is going to do to this dough.

So we'll just have to be patient.

-Okay.

-We have our cooled sauce.

And we did let this sit until it was completely cool.

But it is going to make the sauce a lot easier to spread across the dough if it's cool.

-That makes sense.

-We have our dough that's been rising for a total of 3 hours, which means we should have lots of flavor in this dough.

And it has doubled in size again since the last time we worked with it.

I'm just going to use my spatula to kind of get all of the sauce in there, and then I'm going to spread it.

Now you could use the back of a spoon, whatever you're most comfortable with.

I really love a small offset spatula.

So I'm just going to use the spatula to kind of push the sauce.

See how easily it spreads?

Now this is a dough where you want just the smallest bit of crust exposed.

-Okay.

-We're going to take it all the way to the edge so that we only see about 1/4 of an inch of exposed crust.

Alright.

I feel good about this.

-Okay.

-I have my oven heated to 450 degrees.

The rack is in the upper middle position.

This is not going to take that long to bake, only about 20 minutes... -Oh, wow.

-...until the edges and the crust are light golden brown.

Oh, Julia.

-The smell is incredible, Christie.

-It does smell good.

Look at that.

-Oh, gorgeous.

-Oh.

-It smells good.

-And I'm just looking around.

You can see that we have kind of a light golden brown color.

We're not looking for a really dark crust.

Now, we do want to let this just kind of sit and let that sauce set a little bit more for about 5 minutes, and then we can take it out of the pan.

-Alright.

-It's been 5 minutes.

So now it's time to get it out of the pan.

You can use a paring knife, or I'm just going to use another offset spatula.

Because we oiled this pan so well, it's releasing really nicely.

And just kind of get under that.

See?

-Boom.

-I love it when a plan comes together.

-Perfectly done.

-Thank you.

Alright, so... -Look at those square sides.

-See?

And it's just golden brown.

It's not too dark.

Just a nice set crust.

So now I'm going to cut this into 8 rectangles.

So I'll do a long cut first.

-Well, look at that crumb.

Like you said, it's not focaccia big.

It wasn't a super wet dough, but it's like a good roll.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

-Mmm.

That's delicious.

-The -- The sauce is so intense but, like, in a good way.

Not too salty, a little sweet.

And then the pepper.

Did you get the pepper flakes?

-I got the pepper.

Got the oregano now.

This is delicious.

It's like bread with a little extra.

-Right?

My sister lives in Philadelphia, and she says that there's just no party, event, get together that happens without somebody bringing one of these along.

-This is really cool.

Thank you for showing me how to make this.

-You're welcome.

-There you have it.

If you want to make this Philadelphia classic, start by making a simple yeast dough.

Let it rise in the pan twice and top with a punchy, slightly sweet tomato sauce.

From "Cook's Country," a terrific recipe for a Philly tomato pie.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and our product reviews at our website, CooksCountry.com/tv.

This is so cool.

I'm really into this.

-I'm so glad.

-Mmm.

-Let us help with dinner tonight.

Visit our website anytime for the newest seasons, fail proof recipes, full episodes, ingredient advice, and equipment reviews.

CooksCountry.com/tv.

"The Complete Cook's Country TV Show Cookbook" includes every recipe, tasting, and testing from all 17 TV seasons.

With over 650 recipes, it's our most comprehensive collection of "Cook's Country" TV recipes ever.

The cost is $24.99, $15 off the cover price of $40.

To order, head to our online shop at CooksCountry.com/book.

-Funding for this program has been provided by the following.

-Monument Grills, offering innovative technology and design for the grilling enthusiast.

With a lineup of gas grills to suit every level, our mission is to ignite your passion to pursue the art of grilling.

Learn more at monumentgrills.com.

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