Italian Sandwich

A long roll split and layered with Italian-American cold cuts, provolone, shredded lettuce, tomato, onion, pickled peppers and a dressing of oil, vinegar and oregano: the Italian sandwich is what the East Coast of the United States built when immigrants from Campania and Sicily met the soft bread of American bakeries. The name changes every hundred miles. Philadelphia calls it a hoagie, New York and New Jersey a hero or a sub, New England a grinder, New Orleans a po' boy when it is on French bread, and in Maine the Italian is a specific thing invented in Portland around 1900, with ham, American cheese, tomato, green pepper, onion, olives and pickles on a soft roll. Delicatessens from Boston to Baltimore have their own house version, and the meats, the order of the layers and the amount of dressing are matters of local pride.