Background: The steak sandwich is well known to be a Philadelphia classic and enjoy making them when we have good Italian rolls in the house and some “on-sale” steak in the refrigerator. Sometimes after we’ve made pizza, there will be left over pepperoni and San Marzano tomato sauce available, so I pull a steak out of the freezer and make pepperoni pizza steaks.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ribeye or London broil (approximate)
2 Amoroso or similar rolls
½ red pepper sliced and chopped
½ yellow onion sliced and chopped
4 oz mushrooms sliced
4-6 slices provolone
2 cloves garlic minced
1 shallot chopped
2 inches stick pepperoni cut into 1/8” slices and halved
6-8 oz leftover pizza sauce (or pasta sauce)
2 cherry peppers sliced in half
3 tbsp olive oil

Steps:

  1. Keep the meat very cold until just before slicing, then cut into 1/8” wide slices, then cut into pieces. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
  2. On a griddle or large pan coat with 1 tbsp olive oil and drop in the chopped garlic. Lay the two rolls downside in the pan and use a weight, if possible, heat until browned. Once browned turn over and allow outside to heat. Remove and plate, then add the provolone equally to each roll.
  3. In a hot cast iron or similar pan add one tbsp olive oil then the shallot, mushrooms, onions, and red peppers. Cook until the pepper starts changing color and the mushrooms give up some liquid. Move the vegetables to the outside, drop in the last tbsp of olive oil and meat, allowing that to cook until it starts to brown. Stir often, keep the heat medium high.
  4. Next drop in the stick pepperoni and stir, then a minute later the tomato sauce and continue to cook, stirring well until coated and reduced a bit (about 2 minutes). Remove from the heat. Using tongs remove from the pan and fill each roll. Garnish with cherry peppers, cut in half and serve.
  5. Sliced deli pepperoni can be substituted for the stick, and mozzarella can be added if desired, I just like provolone by itself.