The Italian Sandwich Bobby Flay Always Orders When In Rome

When Bobby Flay is in Rome, he could probably go to any restaurant or eatery in the city and get a table pretty quickly. While in the Eternal City in 2024, Flay didn't spotlight a Michelin-starred ristorante or a sit-down trattoria of any kind on his Instagram page, but rather, a tiny sandwich spot he called, "One of my favorite stops every time I'm in Rome." La Vita è un Mozzico is a 10-minute walk from the famed Spanish Steps and always worth a stop, according to Flay. His go-to order is a porchetta sandwich.

Flay explained that patrons have lots of choices as far as which kinds of cured meats they can select for their sandwich, but he opts for sliced roasted pork with crispy skin, pesto sauce, and stracciatella cheese that's placed inside a square of pizza bianca. In this case, pizza bianca refers to a type of flatbread, not a slice of pizza with cheese on it. The salty bread — which is made from a pizza crust-like dough — is sliced in half to make a space for the ingredients, and the assembled sandwich is placed in a panini press to warm everything up. 

Flay warned his fans to be prepared to wait, as the shop is popular and usually busy. Even though he clearly knows the proprietor, Flay himself doesn't get special treatment when he drops by, and he takes a number like everyone else to patiently wait his turn to order. There are no tables or chairs at La Vita è un Mozzico, so this sandwich is best enjoyed standing up on the cobblestone streets of Rome.

Bobby Flay calls this porchetta number from La Vita è un Mozzico "the perfect Italian sandwich," which is quite a statement from a classically trained chef who has eaten all around the world. So what is it that makes this three-ingredient sandwich worthy of his highest praise? It's undoubtedly the quality of the Italian ingredients.

The porchetta is a Roman-created dish that consists of a slab of pork that has been stuffed with aromatics, rolled, and roasted until the skin is crisp, though sometimes, porchetta refers to an entire roasted pig. This roasted meat is as delicious thinly sliced and stuffed between a halved slice of homemade pizza bianca as it is as a show-stopping centerpiece, like with this Thanksgiving porchetta.

Flay selects stracciatella cheese for his favored sandwich. In Italy, stracciatella can refer to a few different ingredients or dishes. It is a soup made with broth, eggs, and parmesan cheese; it's also a flavor of gelato that is similar to chocolate chip ice cream. But stracciatella as a cheese is a creamy, bright white cheese that is made by mixing torn pieces of fresh mozzarella with cream. The gooey, oozy, creamy center of burrata cheese is stracciatella. 

Finally, Flay's sandwich order comes with a smear of pesto, which is a sauce that originated in the city of Genoa in northern Italy. It consists of basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and real-deal Parmigiano Reggiano, and it adds a wonderfully fresh yet savory flavor to the sandwich.