I used Instacart curbside pick up from Wegmans this week and I must say I was pleasantly surprised! We were driving back from Cleveland on Labor Day and going grocery shopping was the last thing I wanted to do after a 5 hour drive. Instead I spent my co-pilot time making my grocery list. I was fairly certain I had some pizza dough in the freezer, and steak and cheese pizza was sounding really yummy to me. So I added shaved steak, a green bell pepper, and some mushrooms to my cart and forgot about it.

Flash forward to Wednesday when I went to grab said pizza dough out of the freezer, only to find out such a thing did not exist. “No big deal, I’ll run to Pasta’s and get some fresh dough”, I said to myself. And then a thought occurred to me: steak and cheese subs.

I love a good steak and cheese. But in this moment I was fairly certain I had never actually made one for myself. When I was a kid we would have steak and cheese night pretty often, but instead of sub rolls we would have them on wraps or tortillas. My mom would brown some shaved steak and we’d put slices of whatever cheese we had hanging around on them. It was one of my favorites. Very simple. Potentially a little gross. But I also put Frank’s Red Hot on white Minute Rice at this point in my life. Suffice to say my pallet was anything but suffisticated.

Anyways, I texted Connor and he was obviously 100% down for steak and cheese subs, because who isn’t. So we opted to for a loaf of stretch bread from Pasta’s instead of pizza dough. It was also later in the afternoon at this point we scored and got an extra loaf of bread for free. (If you aren’t familiar with Syracuse, Pasta’s Daily Bread is the bakery across the street from Pastabillities, arguably the most popular restaurant in Syracuse. Almost any sandwich you get in Syracuse is served on stretch bread. In the restaurant it’s served with their spicy hot tomato oil. We started walking to the bakery to get bread or pizza dough or their amazing riggie sauce during quarantine and it has changed our lives.)

Steak and cheese subs are pretty straight forward, but if you’re looking for a guide, here’s how I tackled this one:

Shaved steak: I think I had about a pound of it, or whatever one package is.

Veggies: I always like to sneak some veggies in where I can. For this I used half an onion (I happened to have a white onion but I’m sure any kind would be great), a green bell pepper, and probably about 6 oz of mushrooms.

Cheese: You’ll notice a trend here. I had an assortment so I just grabbed the shredded mozzarella and cheddar. Cheese is personal, use as much of whatever kind you want.

1. Heat some olive oil (I used about a tablespoon) in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add in your shaved steak when the oil is heated. Season the steak with your favorite seasonings. I used a BBQ beef dry rub Connor got me in Texas like a million years ago. I think its a mix of salt, pepper, chili pepper, celery, onion, and paprika. I also threw in a few shakes of worcestershire sauce, a little less than tablespoon if I had to guess.
2. While the steak is cooking, chop your veggies. I am not a meticulous chopper. If it’s smaller than when I started I’m satisfied.
3. When the meat is down pour it into a separate bowl.
4. Add your veggies to the same skillet with a little olive oil. I also seasoned with salt and pepper and a big spoon full of minced garlic. I like my veggies done on a sub so I cooked mine until they were a little seared. When the veggies are done remove the skillet from the heat and toss back in your steak.
5. Prepare your sub. I cut about a 6 inch piece of bread and sliced in half. I covered one side of the bread with a little cheddar cheese. Then I added my steak and cheese mixture and covered that with a layer of mozzarella.
6. I happened to already have some asparagus in the oven at this point at 425 so I just tossed my sub in with that. I would recommend if you don’t already have something in the oven just tossing the sub, open faced, under the broiler for a few minutes. Keep an eye on it though! Those broilers are sneaky.
7. Take out your sub when the bread is a little toast and your cheese has gotten melty and and is browning a little.
8. Tada! Top with whatever dressing you’d like. I put a little mayo on mine. Connor request ranch for his, but I didn’t have any, because gross (sorry ranch lovers, it belongs on some things, but not most things).

Hope you enjoy! Simple, fast, pretty budget friendly. It brought me back to the county fair ground steak and cheese subs at horse shows and my moms weird steak and cheese wraps. But this was a little better (sorry, Mom).

Cheers!

-Molly