Veal sandwich (Pane ca meusa)

The sandwich originates from Jewish cuisine and is estimated at being over 1000 years old! It's one of the most well-known street foods from Palermo.

Veal sandwich (Pane ca’ meusa)

• serves

  6

• prep

  5 minutes

• cook

  1:05 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 700 g veal spleen
• 1.3 kg veal lung
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 kg lard
• salt and black pepper
• 6 soft bread rolls
• grated caciocavallo or ricotta, to serve (optional)
• 2 lemons

Instructions

1. Fill a large saucepan with water and place over a high heat to bring to the boil. Add the salt and the spleen and cook for one hour. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before refrigerating overnight. Discard the poaching liquid.
2. Cut the cooked spleen and lung into thin slices. In an extra-large frying pan, heat the lard with 2 tbsp water over low heat.
3. Once the lard boils, add the meat. Cook for 20 minutes on low heat.
4. Remove the spleen and lung slices using a slotted spoon and season with salt and pepper.
5. Serve in the bread rolls with a squeeze of lemon juice (in Palermo they call this schietta, or single) or grated cheese (called maritata, or married).

 

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.