Binging with Babish: A Journey to the Perfect Parmesan Hero

As I walked through the streets of New Jersey, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. Today was the day I would embark on a culinary journey to create the perfect parmesan hero, a dish that had been eluding me for far too long. My friend, who had joined me on this adventure, seemed just as eager as I was, and we were both ready to take on whatever challenges lay ahead.

We started our journey by making the building blocks of the parmesan hero: a good sauce. We've made Italian red sauce a few times before, but this time we're going to oven-roast it with a cocked lid for four to five hours at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. During which time, we can get to making our meatballs. I'm starting by pouring a little bit of buttermilk over three slices of torn white bread, adding a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, a small minced onion, a generous grating of parmesan, and something we haven't seen on this show in a while: a generous grating of nutmeg.

I also added some freshly chopped parsley and basil. We're getting all of our additional flavors living in one place so that they can be more easily dispersed throughout the meat. Add a few pinches of dried oregano, give it a little mix, make sure that everybody's gotten to know each other, and for extra juicy unctuous-ness, we're going to add half a cup of either homemade chicken stock or store-bought chicken stock in which you have to have added some salt. This will help bring all the flavors together and create a rich and savory sauce.

As we continued making our meatballs, I couldn't help but think about the importance of using high-quality ingredients. We're not just talking about any old breadcrumbs here; we're talking about freshly baked bread that has been torn into small pieces. This will give us a light and airy texture that will complement our meat perfectly. And of course, we can't forget about the meat itself. We're using a combination of ground beef and pork to create a juicy and flavorful patty.

Once our sauce and meatballs are ready, it's time to start assembling our parmesan heroes. We'll spread some garlic-and-herb compound butter on an Italian hoagie, top it with our fried veal, some fresh mozzarella cheese, and finally add a slice of Parmesan cheese. And that's where the magic happens. The tomato sauce goes on top of the cheese, keeping the breading crispy and preventing it from turning into one of those mush-fest parmesan heroes you often get when you order them.

But we're not done yet. We want to try out some more modern fillings, like a little bit of pan cubano. It's got a light fluffy interior and a slightly crisp exterior, making it the perfect candidate for parmesan-ing. Same drill here: spread with our compound butter, broil, top with our toppings – this time I'm going with the eggplant, top that with cheese, throw the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes, hopefully you've got a more powerful broiler than I do, so you get some more brown spots, and finally add the sauce.

And then, it's time to take a bite. Oh, how I was looking forward to this moment! The meatball version is just as good as the chicken parmesan. Is it worth taking a bullet for like Joey almost did? Maybe not, but maybe I'd be willing to take a paintball. And now, the reason that I have been eating all these sandwiches – don't worry, nothing went to waste. I've fed them to friends and loved ones because I wanted my personal favorite of the bunch: chicken parmesan.

And while after this experience, I'm pretty much ready to go a long while without seeing a parmesan hero, this guy did join the clean-plate club even though I had just spent the day before eating lasagna with Brad Leone over at It's Alive with Brad.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Atkin's, right?- We caught a parasite over there. Doctors don't know what it is.- What d'they eat, tabbouleh?- Actually, that's why I'm here. I've been dyin' for a Satriale's veal parm hero.♪ Oooooh ♪♪ Who lives in a chicken parmesan hero under the sea?♪♪ Spongebob Squarepants! ♪Whee-hee!- How good is that...?- (mumbling) Ohh, oh oh, yeah.- (audience laughs) See?- (muffled) Mm-hmm.Hey, what's up guys?Welcome back to Binging with Babishwhere this week, I am craving a parmesan hero,and as you just saw, I will use any excuse to make one.The only clip that I couldn't find was for eggplant parmesan.Eggplant parm deserves more attention --and why is everybody laughing at me?Before we get into manhandling our eggplant,we need to focus on the building blocks of the parmesan hero:first and foremost - a good sauce. We've made Italian red saucea few times on this show, and this is a relatively simple amalgam of all of them.But this time we're going to oven-roast the sauce witha cocked lid for four to five hours at 325 degrees Fahrenheit,during which time, we can get to making our meatballs.I'm starting by pouring a little bit of buttermilk overthree slices of torn white bread,adding a couple cloves of crushed garlic,a small minced onion,a generous grating of parmesan,and something we haven't seen on this showin a while: a generous grating of nutmeg.I'm also going to add somefreshly chopped parsley and basil.We're getting all of our additional flavors living in one placeso that they can be more easily dispersed throughout the meat.Add a few pinches of dried oregano, give it a little mix,make sure that everybody's gotten to know each other,and for extra juicy unctuous-ness, we're going toadd half a cup of either homemade chicken stockor store-bought chicken stock into whichyou have dissolved one packet of gelatin.Next up, it may surprise you to learnthat meatballs contain a great deal of meat.I'm going with equal parts, about one pound each,of the classic meatball mix: beef, veal, and pork.I'm seasoning generously withkosher salt and freshly ground pepperbefore gettin' my hands dirtyand wishing that I'd used a bigger bowl.Once everything is evenly incorporated, we're going toshape these guys into - you guessed it, eggrolls.Um, sorry, uh - meatballs.Go ahead and disperse those evenlyon a well-oiled rack over a rimmed baking sheetand bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheitfor 20 to 30 minutes or until browned.During which time we canslice up and get our eggplant sweatin'.That is, salt the slices of eggplant on both sides,encouraging it to give up some of its moisture.This seasons, softens, and can reducesome bitterness that often plagues eggplant.You can see after two hours these thingsare sweatin' like a Gatorade commercial,so we're just going to dab that offwith a paper towel, and these guys are ready to fry.While we fry, we're going to finish up our meatballs byadding them to the sauce and letting them finish cooking forabout 45 minutes at a gentle simmer.This is going to firm them up a little bitand help soften any hold-out bitsof onion that might be ready to crunch.So for the eggplant, chicken, and veal, we are doinga pretty standard flour, followed by egg, followed by panko breadcrumb breadingand make sure you're using the wet-hand dry-hand process.Not that hand, stupid - that hand.This way you don't end up with your fingers entombed in their owndelicious-looking fry-coating, and you won't be tempted to eat them.We're repeating this exact same process with the chicken,but for the veal, we're talking about a parmesan hero from Satriale'sand they're probably gonna go a little bit more old-school,as you might imagine they would in an old-schoolItalian pork store in Jersey, so we're using Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs.This is going to produce a less crispy,more shell-like coating when it comes time to deep-frySpeaking of which: vegetable oilat 350 degrees Fahrenheit, about an inch.Drop 'em in, laying them away fromyou - no crowding, one even layer.Fry 'em up, give 'em a little flip, take them out.Once they're nice and brown,let 'em drip-dry on a nonstick cooling rack --whoa. Sorry, don't know what got into me there.Salt them while they're still hot,this way the seasoning is gonna adhere a lot better.And don't do what I'm doing.That is, don't fry the veal coated in traditional breadcrumbsbecause it fills your oil with detritus,making it all the more difficult to fry the chicken.We've got one more building block to prepareand that is some garlic-and-herb compound butter,because we're going to essentially turn our herointo garlic bread before making a sandwich out of it.And for those of you in all other partsof the world, a hero is a submarine sandwich.I'm starting with Satriale's veal parmesan, so I've gotan Italian hoagie that I've spread with the compound butter,broiled, and am now stacking high with our fried veal,some fresh mozarella, and some freshly shredded Parmesan cheeseNow you might be asking yourself:where is the tomato sauce?And this is the most important thing I want you to take away from this episode:Tomato sauce goes on top of the cheese.I know this isn't very traditional and I knowit's not the way that parmesan looks in the pictures,but it keeps the breading way more crispyand doesn't let it turn into one of those mush-feststhat you often get when you ordera fill-in-the-blank parmesan hero.Speaking of which, let's try out our slightly more modern fillings.I'm gonna use a little bit of pan cubano.It's got a light fluffy interior and a slightly crisp exteriorand I think it's a perfect candidate for parmesan-ing.So, same drill here, spread with our compound butter and broil,top with our toppings - this time I'm going with the eggplant,top that with cheese, throw the whole thingunder the broiler for a few minutes -hopefully you've got a more powerful broiler than I do,so you get some more brown spots - and then top with the sauce.If you're very lucky you might get a cheese stretch,but it don't matter, because this is a delicious sandwich.The meatball version, just as good.Is it worth taking a bullet for like Joey almost did?Maybe not, but maybe I'd be willing to take a paintball.And now, the reason that I have been eating all thesesandwiches - don't worry, nothing went to waste.I've fed them to friends and loved ones becauseI wanted my personal favorite of the bunch: chicken parmesan.And while, after this experience, I'm pretty much readyto go a long while without seeing a parmesan hero,this guy did join the clean-plate clubeven though I had just spent the day before eatinglasagna with Brad Leone over at It's Alive with Brad.Keep an eye out for that next week. Until then,be a hero to your friends and family, and make thema parmesan submarine sandwich.\n"