26 years ago this month, a show called The Sopranos debuted on HBO. A bunch of Italian-American-focused food was mentioned throughout the six seasons that the show aired and today I’ve isolated one of the more interesting sandwiches featured on the show and I plan to write about it and make it.
To get the full story, first, we need to talk about where the sandwich was made and what the sandwich is.
If you’re interested in reading about or learning about more food featured in the six seasons of The Sopranos, someone at the Food Network compiled this blog post about the 10 Iconic Food Moments in The Sopranos and this Instagram account that posts a complete running catalog of Sopranos food images is even more fun.
Satriale’s Pork Store
Satriale’s Pork Store is not a real place—it exists only in the universe of The Sopranos. It’s a fictional meat market that sells large and small cuts of meat like ribs, chicken parts, and ground sausage. Satriale’s also has a coffee bar and a deli counter where you can buy cold cuts or purchase a sandwich.
Satriale’s was a popular hangout of many of the main characters in The Sopranos and it became the home of a few pivotal scenes. While Satriale’s is a fictional spot, I found it pretty interesting that it still has its own real-life Wikipedia page and a very informative fan wiki page as well.
Satriale’s Pork Store has been in the Soprano family since 1970. Tony Soprano, the main character in the show, is gifted ownership of Satriale’s in 1984 when his dad, Johnny Soprano dies. The store is often used as a meeting place for Tony and his crime family (the DiMeo family).
While we never really see a sandwich menu from Satriale’s (or at least I couldn’t find one) according to FBI Special Agent Dwight Harris, the meat market sold a stellar veal parmesan hero. Maybe we’ll make that sandwich someday in the future?
Satriale’s Pork Store could have been a place where other types of NOT FDA-APPROVED meat were cut up and disposed of in the middle of the night, but I know nothin’ ’bout that.
Video evidence
If you want to see more of the fake pork store, someone combined a few scenes of the DiMeo family meeting at Satriale’s into one 12-minute YouTube video. And if you want more Sopranos meat content, here’s a compilation of 43 seconds of gabagool being mentioned on The Sopranos.
Please note: the comment sections of both videos linked above are a goldmine of fun.
What is this sandwich?
In the second-to-final episode of Season 6, Episode 20, Blue Comet, which aired on June 3rd, 2007, Tony Soprano orders a sandwich from the counter at Satriale’s that he eventually tosses in the trash. His exact sandwich order is: “Give me a gabagool, provolone, and vinegar peppers.”
After Tony gets the sandwich and takes the first bite, he bumps into Agent Harris who gives him a bit of bad news. In the next scene, we see a very sad-looking Tony throw the rest of the sandwich away. Does he hate the taste of the gabagool and provolone or is he just upset and/or distraught?
To me, it seems to be implied that he has lost his appetite because of the bad news. We know that Tony should be very aware of what this sandwich is going to taste like. He owns Satriale’s and because of its simplicity, this isn’t the sort of sandwich that will have a lot of variance from one time to the next. He is simply in a bad place mentally and unable to finish the sandwich that he ordered.
Photos of Tony’s sandwich
These are the best screen captures of the sandwich that I could get. The sandwich itself is only on the screen for a brief second or so and there are two different angles that it shows up during those scenes. You can see the slices of meat and white cheese poking out of a long roll. No sign of any vinegar peppers but I’m assuming they’re in there.
One thing that I didn’t capture well in these few screenshots but I was able to notice after a couple of viewings of this scene is that Tony does put some effort into chewing this sandwich. It’s not a soft peanut butter and jelly on Wonder Bread, it’s a sandwich in a bread roll that has some chew. This all lines up with what you should expect of an Italian-style sub sandwich from the Northeastern United States.
Now that we know that the gabagool, provolone, vinegar peppers sandwich is a thing, we need to make our own. Follow along to learn about the ingredients and get the recipe.
Italian sandwich roll
I’ve made this roll recipe at the very least 4 times because as of this blog post I’ve now written about it 4 different times. I say “at the very least” because I typically will do 2 or 3 test batches before even releasing the recipe.
The first time I made these rolls was for Jon’s roast pork, then I made the recipe for a spicy shrimp roll sandwich, and the third time before Tony’s sandwich was for a non-traditional sriracha-glazed meatball sub. The reason I bring all of this up is that I’ve gotten a couple of comments on the recipe asking if the hydration of the dough is correct.
It is. This is just a denser roll than you might be used to. Don’t get me wrong, the bread is still soft, it’s just a bit chewy and this roll is ready to stand up to some moisture-filled ingredients. It would be a great option for something like a French dip or a Chicago beef.
Just prior to baking, the recipe calls for you to paint the tops of the rolls with an egg white wash. This is simply a whole egg with the yolk discarded and a tablespoon of water mixed together and when it is painted on a bread roll it should help the bread look shiny and brown after the bake is finished. Most Italian rolls will not have this egg wash but I enjoy how it makes the final roll appear.
Italian sandwich rolls
A firm but still soft sandwich roll, perfect for cold cuts or even au jus dipped sandwiches. There's extra flavor from an overnight starter which leads to tasty sandwich bread.
Get RecipeCapocollo Gabagool
Capocollo is a cured pork product that is made from the whole muscle in the pig’s neck and shoulder. Much like prosciutto, capocollo refers to the whole cut of meat, not a processed amalgamation of two or more pieces of meat. Capocollo is dry-cured and then it is typically sliced fairly thin by your deli or butcher.
Capocollo is sometimes called coppa in Italy and in North America you will occasionally see the word spelled as capicola or capicolla. The word is based on two Italian words, capo which means head and collo, meaning neck. Capo is also an often-used shortening of another Italian word, in mafia movies or tv shows, standing in for caporegime or “head of the family.”
In The Sopranos, many of the characters refer to capocollo as “gabagool.” The website How Stuff Works explains that this is an example of how regional dialects may have changed how Italian Americans pronounce Italian words. There’s also a really informative article from Atlas Obscura that attempts to explain the Italian New Jersey Accent.
Capocollo can be bought in a regular version and a spicy version. If your deli counter has both you might be asked which one you want. I bought the regular version for this sandwich but I think the spicy would have worked just fine. Capocollo is salty like prosciutto or country ham, but the larger proportion of fat and the way it is cured give the sliced meat a lot of chewiness, texture, and flavor.
In Season 1, Episode 12 of The Sopranos, Tony’s teenage daughter Meadow complains that gabagool is “nothing but fat and nitrates.”
Provolone
If you’re only familiar with the provolone that you buy in presliced packages at the grocery store, you may not be aware that there are two main varieties of this type of cheese.
Italians have a name for these two versions, Provolone Dolce and Provolone Piccante. The major difference between the two varieties is the amount of time that they have been aged. Provolone Dolce is sold as a young cheese and Provolone Piccante is aged at least four months giving it a stronger, sharper flavor.
Dolce = sweet.
Piccante = sharp.
In North America, Provolone Dolce is what you get when you ask for “Provolone.” It’s a softer cheese that has a slightly sweet flavor and typically it is pretty good at melting. On the flip side, Provolone Piccante has a much sharper flavor and the cheese itself is dryer. Provolone Piccante will still melt, it just doesn’t become as creamy of an addition to a sandwich or pizza as Provolone Dolce.
If you are at a North American deli counter and you want to ask if they have Provolone Piccante, you can just call it “Sharp Provolone.” Some versions of sharp provolone sold in the United States (and likely in other places) will just say “sharp” on the label and they won’t mention the word Piccante at all.
Vinegar peppers
Up until this point, the ingredients (minus the bread) are things you can simply buy at the store. Technically vinegar peppers or pickled peppers are sold at your local grocery as well, but you can easily make them and in my experience, they’re better when you can control the ingredients used to make them.
Vinegar peppers are simply quick pickled bell peppers. They can be roasted first or you can pickle them without roasting if you want.
The main two reasons that I like to roast the peppers first are because it helps to remove the skin and it softens the peppers just a bit which helps with the final texture. You do not have to roast them, but I think it makes the peppers much better.
Here’s my vinegar pepper recipe which will last in your fridge for at least a month but you should find them tasty enough to finish the whole jar before they linger too long. These vinegar peppers work great in tacos or even as an ingredient on pizza (this might be a spoiler for the final photo on this blog post).
Vinegar peppers (pickled red peppers)
This is a great pickled red pepper recipe that works well in sandwiches, burgers, taco or even as a pizza topping.
Get RecipeGabagool, provolone, and vinegar peppers sandwich
I really enjoyed this sandwich. It’s a bit simple, but it’s very focused. The meat is salty and a tiny bit sweet which is very much balanced by sharp, nutty provolone. But the sandwich really goes over the top with the slightly sweet and mostly tangy pickled bell peppers.
Make sure you sprinkle a little bit of extra pickled pepper juice on the bread before you close everything up.
I suggest that you wrap this sandwich in a piece of paper if you want the best experience. Wrapping it up will help all the juice from the peppers to spread around the sandwich and makes everything even better.
Gabagool, provolone and vinegar peppers
This is the sandwich that Tony Soprano ordered in the penultimate episode of The Sopranos. It's a comfortingly simple but focused Italian-style sub sandwich that's full of more than just "fat and nitrates."
Ingredients:
Vinegar peppers- 4 yellow, red or orange bell peppers
- 1 cup water
- 1⁄2 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1⁄4 cup white sugar (for extra vinegar flavor you can reduce this to 2 tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 six-inch length of Italian bread roll
- olive oil (just a drizzle)
- 3 to 4 ounces sliced capocollo (or gabagool)
- 1 to 2 slices of provolone (sharp or regular/sweet)
- vinegar peppers (from above)
- vinegar pepper liquid (from above)
Directions:
Oven roasted peppers: preheat your oven to 450 degrees F (230 C).
Cut your red bell peppers down the center into two halves and remove the stem and all the seeds. With a small knife, remove as much of the white membrane on the inside of the pepper as you can.
Place your pepper halves face down on an aluminum foil-lined sheet pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the skins of the peppers are turning fairly black.
Remove your peppers from the oven and transfer into a bowl large enough to hold all of them. At this point, you want to steam them slightly to make the skins easier to remove. You can either cover your bowl with another inverted bowl or you can cover your bowl with something like plastic wrap. Covering a bowl with a cutting board will also work. You're just trying to trap the stem in with the roasted peppers.
After about 5 or 10 minutes your peppers should be cool enough to handle.
Remove from the bowl to a cutting board and carefully strip off all the skins and the burned or charred bits of pepper skin or flesh. Using a paper towel may help you peel the skin more easily because it will help you get a better grip on the slightly damp skin. Discard all the burned parts and the skin.
Slice your roasted peppers into slices or large pieces depending on what sort of application you want to use them on. I like to slice in long strips and then cut those strips in half.
Boiling brine: add water, vinegar, sugar, and salt into a medium pot over medium heat.
Stir the brine occasionally until it starts to boil. Allow it to boil for 1 or 2 minutes or until all of the salt and sugar have dissolved and are no longer visible. Remove the pot from the heat.
Add everything to the jar: add all of the softened, roasted, and sliced peppers to a large jar with 6 chopped up cloves of garlic.
Pour the boiling brine into the jar with the peppers and garlic. Make sure the peppers are fully covered. Seal the jar and allow it to cool before storing in your fridge for up to a month.
Sandwich assembly: slice a six-inch roll and add a drizzle of olive oil to the bottom.
Top the olive oil with piled-up capocollo. Try not to just lay the meat flat. Fold it over or drape it for best results. Break the provolone slices in half and shingle them over the meat.
Add as many vinegar peppers as you would like and spoon a bit of the pickled pepper liquid over the inside of the top of the sandwich roll to add a bit more flavor. Close the sandwich and wrap it tightly in parchment paper before serving.
Notes:
Gabagool is an alternate pronunciation used by some Italian Americans for capocollo which is a cured meat. If you can't find capocollo, you can make a similar sandwich with pancetta, prosciutto, or even something like genoa salami. It will not be exactly the same sandwich, but similar.
Warm instead of cold?
The sandwich that Tony ordered was most definitely a cold deli-meat-style sandwich with unmelted cheese and most likely untoasted bread. But I had some extra ingredients and decided to make one version hot. I layered on the meat and topped it with cheese and broiled it for just a couple of minutes until the cheese was melty.
I think this sandwich is good warm, but I don’t think it’s actually much better than the cold version. Keep it simple and keep it cold.
Surprise Tony Soprano pizza!
I clearly bought too much capocollo and provolone because when I finally ran out of rolls, I still had some left. So I made a gabagool, provolone, and vinegar peppers pan-style pizza.
This might be a spoiler for next week’s sandwich blog post but I’ve been working on getting my personal favorite pan pizza recipe dialed in and used this as a test for that. FYI: it turned out great and I really enjoyed eating this combination in pizza form.
Check back next week
You’ll never guess what I’ll be writing about next week (unless you read the paragraph above)! Check back and see how it all turns out.
