- What are we making today?
- Yes. - How's that for a segue?
(audience applauds) - Okay.
- So the first component, this is from my second book,
from "Let's Do Dinner".
And I love to take staples or classics
and kind of reinvent them a little bit.
- Which, you know, I always talk about
how hot you are on this cover.
(scattered audience cheers) Like, come on.
It's like, ah
- So back to the recipe. (Drew laughs)
So do you know what a croque monsieur is?
- I do, indeed.
- So it's like a classic French bistro situation,
of like a hot sandwich with ham and Gruyere.
And I wanted to, I love taking traditional
staples and just tweaking them 5%.
So I decided to Italianify it,
even though I'm not Italian,
but I'm obsessed with all things that are
and I called it the "Croque Signore".
(Drew gasps throatily)
So should we get started on it?
- Yes. - Okay.
So it's basically, it's very familiar
but it's just all the elements,
but just Italianified a little.
So first thing we're gonna make is a bechamel,
which is literally just butter,
a little bit of flour,
and it makes a nice little thick base,
and we just want to kind of incorporate it,
so there are no lumps.
That's why a whisk is so good.
And then very slowly,
about a quarter of a cup or so at a time,
I just add a little bit of milk
and then I just keep on, - Emulsify it.
- That's right.
It'll thin it out a little and then it'll thicken up again.
And then we just keep on adding a little more
and a little more,
and then we take it off the heat.
And just as you have at home,
we already have one that's ready over here.
- The magic of television.
- So I added a little bit of pepper to that,
a little bit of salt,
and it should be nice and thick, so it's gonna stick
as a really wonderful binder to the bread.
So now we're gonna assemble just some
really simple sourdough,
and then we're gonna take a little spoon,
and just kind of schmear it over the top
- Schmear.
- Okay, perfect.
So that's fine.
So I put a bit of bechamel on both sides
and now we're gonna take, okay.
So typically, a croque monsieur is made with either ham,
some people make it with turkey for a croque madame,
but Mortadella is the fancy Italian version of baloney
and you can get it with pistachios,
you can get it with olives,
and there are these perfect little lumps of fat
and some pepper in there.
- [Drew] Lumps.
- [Antoni] Lumps.
- Oh my God,
this is the best Mortadella I've ever had in my life.
I have to say. - I love it.
And when it's really nice and thin,
the fat's gonna render.
- The way you're layering your meat is really showing me up.
- So I like it to kind of stick out along the edges.
We want it to be a little abundant, if you will.
- Oh, mine's.
Mine is not. - Yours is perfect.
Yours is great. - Meh, it's not as good.
- [Antoni] Don't be so hard on yourself.
- [Drew] All right. Okay.
- Okay. Next up, pepperonchini.
Little pickled peppers, they're like sweet.
- [Drew] Now these are not banana peppers.
These are pepperonchinis,
- [Antoni] Pepperonchini, yeah.
And then some toasted pistachios.
- Oh, that's different.
- Just to get them really nice and crunchy.
Well, you need a little bit of a crunch inside the sandwich,
'cause the bread is crunchy,
but then I also like to have it on the inside as well.
- I also am a crunch nut, I'm texture freak.
- [Antoni] Yeah.
- This is, this is different
- And I love pistachios so much.
- Was ist this?
- A bit of basil.
- Basil.
See, these are flavors
I would never have thought to put together.
This is such a unique sandwich.
- But think about it,
pistachios are used a lot of Southern Italian,
Sicilian cuisine, pepperonchini's on,
I don't know, with pizza.
Basil's on literally every single,
it's just stuff that we're all familiar with.
- [Drew] How do you feel about a Hawaiian pizza?
- I love a Hawaiian pizza. - Me too!
- I do, I do. - I love it so much.
But I do think when I go pizza,
I want black olives, pepperonchinis, pepperoni, bell pepper.
I like a really classic Italian taste,
after you've Americanized it. - So I love
a triple pepperoni situation,
with extra sauce, extra cheese.
And then I like one with jalapenos or banana peppers
and pineapple. - Yes, yes.
- And a bit of ham. - Yes!
- It has to be crispy ham.
I don't like it when it's like too mushy.
- Flacid.
- Yeah, flacid.
No one likes flacid, um. - No.
(audience laughs)
Okay, so lemon zest. (Drew laughs)
Yup, we're there.
We're gonna get those nice citrus oils in there.
Okay.
So now we have, I wanna get the right one on.
- Spank that thing. - Perfect.
(audience laughs)
Spank the micro plane. - I'm gonna spank it.
- Never thought I'd say, but here we are.
- There we go. - Great.
And then the other part goes on top.
Perfect.
And then a little bit more bechamel on top,
'cause why not?
- Does that also kind of add to a little bit
of that yummy burn factor? - Yes.
Well, also the extra cheese that we're gonna put on top
is gonna add to that as well.
- Okay, that's what I'm looking at, 'cause that...
- So you have the creamy with the Provolone.
You could use a mozzarella here, if you wanted to.
If you wanted to go a little sharper,
you could just grate a bit of parm,
or even pecorino if you want extra sharp.
- [Drew] Mm-hm.
- [Antoni] Perfect.
And then a couple of pieces.
- [Drew] And then a little extra cheese.
- Yeah.
And then we just lay it in the middle.
(audience applauds)
- 'Cause that effect, let me get you in the oven here.
- Oh, thank you.
Perfect - Time and temp, Antoni.
- Thank you.
- [Drew] How Do you recommend time and temp?
- [Antoni] Oh, I'm so bad at this stuff.
Well it says 400, so let's go with that.
(audience laughs) - And for about?
- 10 to 15 ish minutes.
- Well let's see.
Look at that. - Boom.
- Oh my God, it's so beautiful.
(audience applauds)
- You get the prettier, browner one.
- Oh Antoni.
So I'm gonna go and here's another-
- [Antoni] Yes, finger on the each side,
to keep it together.
- And I also sometimes do a little middle-
- [Antoni] Yes.
- [Drew] So that the blade can rest in it and cut easier.
- Also very helpful for cutting ice cream sandwiches,
when you don't want the ice cream
to fall out of the sides.
- [Drew] And tomatoes.
- And tomatoes.
What kind of a knife do you use for your tomatoes?
(audience applauds) Thank you.
- Should I use a serrated?
- I use a serrated.
- Yeah! - Yep.
- It gets that flesh.
- [Antoni] Oh.
- [Drew] What'd you say?
- [Antoni] Oh, I just said, "Oh", 'cause I got excited.
- [Drew] Oh!
- Are we taking a bite?
- We're taking a bite.
- Yes, cheers.
- Cheers, Antoni.
(audience applauds)
- This is comfort food for me.
- The bechamel really stands out.
It does not get lost to the process.
The Mortadella is really beautiful, especially warm.
The pepperonchini's shining through,
bringing that acid. - Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah!
- It's like a tickle,
versus a fall. Mm-hm. - Yeah!
And just picture a really rainy day.
You know, like a rainy night that we have in New York
and you just wake up and you want something
that's comforting, but really easy.
And make it your own! - Yes.
- Swap some of these - Sometimes you don't have
ingredients for other things. all of these things.
- With some deli turkey.
You can make this vegetarian.
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