Sub Rolls

safeway had pork loins on sale, so i made a couple of big ones yesterday. knowing i had leftovers, i decided i wanted a cuban sandwich. i've never had one, but i've wanted to try. so, i made sub rolls using the italian bread recipe in my bread machine cookbook (with the inspired title of The Bread Machine Cookbook, by donna rathmell german). i put the dough machine on dough cycle and let it do the hard work, then i took the dough out, separated it into 6 classic pistolet (it's a culinary term! how cool is that?) shapes, let 'em rise about an hour und a half, then baked. have i told you, dear readers (all five of you), that i'm a genius? yup. soft in the middle, crusty on the outside. i split one, slabbered with mustard, added pork, ham, cheese, and pickle, then grilled it in a cast iron pan with heavy pan pressing down on it, then flipped it over to grill the other side, and behold: a cubano sanwich. the bread was very good. the sandwich? eh. it was good, but not worth the fuss i've seen made over them. it probably helps to be in havana or tampa when you eat them, i suppose. it's certainly nowhere in my personal pantheon of sandwich deities (the reuben, pb&j, cold meatloaf, blt&a ((avocado)), and of course the burkie ((in the comments of that blog)), among others) but good. actually, i think i'd like it better cold rather than grilled.