This Was Said To Be Dean Martin's Favorite Sandwich – It's No Ordinary Cheese Steak Or Roast Beef

Foodie influencers love to pay homage to old-timey meals that legendary Las Vegas crooners considered favorites. One that gets mentioned on repeat is Dean Martin's rumored favorite sandwich, the steak pizzaiola.

Martin, along with the rest of his Rat Pack buddies (Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop) were the epitome of cool right around the time that Vegas was having a moment. By the time the Las Vegas Strip had gained momentum as a place of glamor in the 1960s, Martin and his crew headlined the Sands Hotel and Casino, adding an element of relatable street-cred to the Vegas glitz. That relatability stemmed from Martin's humble beginnings as the son of an Italian immigrant father, and Ohio-born mother. His dad was from Southern Italy, near Naples, where the steak pizzaiola was known to have gotten its start.

The steak pizzaiola is uncomplicated, though it does take the idea of an ordinary sandwich and elevates the flavor up a notch. You simply simmer a thin-cut of beef to tender perfection  in a tomato sauce that has garlic and oregano, then blanket the whole business with a favorite cheese and accent it all with a great crusty bread. It's the perfect compromise when you can't decide between steak or pizza, make steak pizzaiola.

Steak pizzaiola can come on a bun, next to a salad, or simply on a plate with a sprig of basil. Neighborhood Italian-American sandwich shops have been known to stick with cheeses like mozzarella or provolone, but there are plenty of personalized touches you can add to your steak pizzaiola to make it your own.

Although inexpensive cuts of meat are often associated with steak pizzaiola, like chuck or skirt steak, you can easily elevate yours by substituting out top round for ribeye, or maybe a leaner protein like chicken. Since pizzaiola is an Italian phrase that generally means that one is to craft it in the manner of a pizza maker, think accordingly. For starters, only the freshest garlic, peppers, and oregano will construct the most robust flavors for the sauce. There is also a minor debate around which standout cooking method makes the best pizzaiola: cooking your meat first, or adding your meat to cook in the simmering sauce. Either way, you should double check that you're not overcooking your meat, an easy mistake since steak pizzaiola protein is commonly thinly-cut.

Whether you wish to add a soup with that sandwich (his mom's pasta fagioli was also a Dean Martin favorite) or eat it dripping out the sides of an Italian loaf on its own, steak pizzaiola is comfort food that's cool. Just be sure to have lots of napkins handy.