The Italian Sandwich Beloved By Bobby Flay

Although the celebrity chef, cookbook author, and TV host Bobby Flay made a name for himself early in his career with food inspired by the American Southwest and Flay's first restaurant, New York's Mesa Grill, he's also well-known for his love of Italian culture. And while you can take his advice on a simple oil swap for better pasta sauce, thanks to his reporting from the peninsula, fans can tailor their Italian vacation itineraries based on Flay's recommendations.

When it comes to sandwiches, there's one spot Flay flagged on his Instagram, encouraging Italians and Italophiles to add to their must-visit lists: La Vita è un Mozzico in Rome. There, Flay explains that you can find a variety of panini options, but his favorite is a simple classic: porchetta, pesto, and stracciatella cheese on the freshly baked pizza bianca. This shop's creation is a perfectly balanced, elemental combination of ingredients that checks all the sensory boxes required for a superb handheld creation, and what Flay calls "the perfect Italian sandwich."

That said, if you aren't prepared to hop on a plane to Rome anytime soon, you can probably recreate a very similar sandwich based on Flay's description. All you need are a few key components, and with a little imagination, you'll be transported to the Eternal City.

In Italy, porchetta is a famous dish made from pork loin embellished with aromatics and herbs like fennel seed and stuffed with a filling (think herbs and hearty greens like kale). After roasting, the tender meat develops a crisp, contrasting crust that makes this a crowd favorite. Porchetta is an impressive special-occasion centerpiece, but Italians also slice it up as the hero of their sandwiches. In Bobby Flay's favorite panino, the rich, flavorful meat is buoyed by a bright pesto that brings an herbaceous, citrusy lift to the table, and you can either make this sauce from scratch or seek out the best store-bought pesto sauces money can buy.

Stracciatella is a mozzarella that's torn into pieces during production (stracciatella means "little rags"). The result is softer and creamier than a slice of fresh mozz, and in this sandwich, it's a milky, unifying ingredient that marries pesto and pork. The bread may be called pizza bianca, but it's not the crusty, topping-laden slice the name might suggest. Instead, what Flay refers to as "white pizza bread" is a fluffier, soft, and chewy carbohydrate. (If you can't get your hands on this stuff, try ciabatta or focaccia.)

Flay concludes by describing the finished product in its craveable simplicity: "Three ingredients, and the pizza bread wraps the whole thing up." And whether you make yours from scratch or source something similar from your favorite Italian spot on either side of the Atlantic, this sandwich will easily transport you to the streets of Flay's beloved Rome.