Baby Napoli takes me on a trip down memory lane – Terry was one of my best friends in high school. She had the most infectious laugh – still does! We had so much fun. One of the many memories that flooded back when I started thinking about food was tooling around Belpre in Terry’s 1972 Plymouth Valiant. It was a golden-brown, four-door sedan. Terry always drove because I was a timid driver even then. I joked that my Dad would sabotage my Subaru, because it broke down so frequently and he would have to rescue me. It was just more fun to drive around in the Valiant (at least for me – thx Terry!). But I digress.
We would drive to the Dairy Queen; we’d drive to Civitan Park, we’d drive up and down Washington Blvd. We would hang out. My favorite destination, however, was Napoli’s. They served the famous Baby Napoli. I’ve never forgotten it.
Terry and most of her family still live in the Mid-Ohio Valley, MOV for short, and the Baby Napoli is a family favorite. So of course, I enlisted her to help me try to create a copycat recipe. This is what we came up with. I must admit, it’s not the same, but it’s close!
Baby Napoli (ish)
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground sirloin
- 1/2 t Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 t baking soda
- 4 slices pepper jack cheese or American, for the real thing
- pickled peppers
(see note below) - 8 slices sourdough bread or Italian bread, for the real thing
- 2 T butter
- 4 cloves garlic minced or grated using a rasp
Instructions
- Create the patties and preheat the oven – Mix 1/4 t baking soda and 1/2 t Worcestershire sauce into the ground sirloin and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes. Then roll the ground sirloin into four balls and gently flatten them into round patties. They should be only about ½ inch thick, or even thinner. They'll plump and shrink as they cook, and you want them to fill up the sandwich. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, convection bake setting.
- Grill the bread – Melt the butter in the microwave, and then stir in the grated garlic and ½ t of salt. Brush one side of each piece of bread with the garlic butter. Grill buttered side down on a griddle or a cast iron pan. Set aside and keep warm.
- Sauté the patties – Sauté the patties until they're brown and caramelized, about 3 minutes each side.
- Assemble the sandwich – Fill two pieces of grilled bread with slice of cheese, a patty, a generous heap of pickled peppers, and another slice of cheese. Wrap in aluminum foil.
- Bake the sandwich – Bake for about 10 minutes – enough time to melt the cheese. Unwrap and serve.
Notes
Ron isn’t interested in eating a Baby Napoli. It’s not his memory, and it is a very indulgent experience. But in my mind, it’s no more indulgent than his Kimchi Grilled Cheese Ronald.
Yum! Great post! Now I want to make it! I drove a Plymouth Valiant 1974! She was named Old Peg…..I bought her from a woman named Peg….who was not old at all in retrospect!
Hi Beany. I hope you do make it – it’s super easy, and not at all healthy, but really delicious! Old Peg – Ha! I wonder how many people call us (or think of us as…) Old Beany or Old Melinda. Perspective changes everything. 🙂