We Made That!

The contributions to humanity by Italians and, later, Italian-Americans is enormous. "We made that," is a term that gained some popularity in recent years. For the most part, the term has been ascribed to things of questionable origins. (The people claiming they made it didn't. Leastwise, not on their own.) But not so for many contributions made by Italians and Italian-Americans.

I could go on and on about people like DaVinci, Marconi, Meucci (the true inventor of the telephone), and many more, but today I'm going to write about Conti, Dominic Conti, the Italian immigrant who invented one of the truly great and much-loved contributions to Italian-American cuisine: the Sub Sandwich.

Dominic Conti hailed from Montello, Italy. Like so many others of his nationality, he came to America in the very early 1900s. Also like many other Italian immigrants, Dominic settled in the great state of New Jersey, where I just happened to have been born and raised. He opened an Italian grocery store in Paterson, NJ, where he sold, amongst other Italian foods and fare, traditional Italian sandwiches.  Dominic's sandwiches consisted of a long, crusty, Italian bread roll filled with cold cuts and topped with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, oil, vinegar, Italian herbs and spices, salt, and pepper. The sandwich started with a layer of cheese and ended with a layer of cheese so the bread wouldn't get soggy. (Good thinking, Dominic!)

The sub that inspired *the sub*

One day, Dominic visited a local museum and saw a recovered-and-restored, turn-of-the-century Naval submarine on display. The rest was history. Dominic was so inspired by the sub, he named his Italian sandwiches "submarine sandwiches" and the sub sandwich entered the American lexicon.

Sub sandwiches are known by different names depending on where you're from. Even though there are regional names that differ from "submarine sandwich," and variations on how they're made, they all owe their pedigrees to Dominic Conti. A few of the other popular names for Dominic's sub sandwiches are hero, hoagie, and grinder.

Subs can also be hot sandwiches, the most popular being the meatball sub. My friend, Johnny Meatballs, who (like Conti was) is another Italian-American entrepreneur living and plying his trade in the great state of New Jersey, owes much to the spirit of Dominic Conti. Much like Conti did, Johnny also uses an Italian roll but his sandwiches are filled with his signature meatballs along with cheese and his authentic Italian Sunday Sauce/Gravy.  Johnny has another sandwich, one he and his food-vending paisan, Frankie Antipasto, recently unveiled to the world. It includes meatball, sausage, braciole, soppressata (an Italian salami), sauce and cheese. Mama mia! Now that's a sandwich! It's the Holy Trinity of hot Italian subs!

There are other popular hot Italian sub sandwiches beyond meatballs: Italian sausage (made either with red tomato sauce and cheese or without the sauce with grilled peppers-and-onions instead-- my personal preference), plus there's the mouth-watering alternatives: eggplant parm, chicken parm, and veal parm sandwiches. And last but not least, there's the ever-popular steak-and-peppers sub sandwich. All are delicioso!

By the way, some of you may have heard the word, "sandwich," pronounced "sang-wich."  That's because many old school Italians from back East pronounce it that way. My Aunt Mary (RIP), my Dad's oldest sister who lived much of her life on the West Coast in Azusa, CA, worked part-time in an Italian Deli out here making "sangwiches." This particular deli was quite the popular place amongst the local lunch crowd. I used to sometimes stop by when I was out that way and I thoroughly enjoyed the quizzical looks on many Californian's faces when she asked them what kind of "sang-wich" they wanted. My Aunt Mary was not a patient person. If you didn't answer quickly, she scowled, shook her head, and was on to the next person waiting to order. (Which, to me, was even funnier than her saying, "sangwich.")

So, next time you enjoy a sub, hero, hoagie, grinder, or whatever they call it in your neck of the woods, you owe some thanks to Dominic Conti, the Italian-American inventor of one of the greatest sandwiches of all time: the submarine sang-wich.