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I feel like I'm divulging a deep family secret with this one. Dirty Bread is a tradition among my people that runs so deep my Uncle Jimmy, now long departed, forged a special steel tool that looks something like a flat and twisted sword which my parents use to this day, all summer long, dirtying up loaves of Italian Bread in glorious sausage grease that the bread collects in a press method that you do periodically throughout the grilling of the sausages. In short, dirty bread is a sausage sandwich on Italian bread which has bathed in the juices of cooking sausage. It is glorious.
And fear not, you don't need your own dirty bread sword, I don't even have one. Instead, when making dirty bread at home, I use two long metal skewers which allows me to take my sausage on and off the grill without them spinning and becoming a big old mess. Just be careful when handling them and be sure to use pot holders as the skewers get very very hot!!!!! If you want to get flat skewers, try these babies out!
This dish is easy, relatively fast and seems to blow the mind of every non-Italian-American person that I have ever seen eat this.
This serves 4 - 6, depending on who you are dealing with!
What Do I need
2 Ibs Italian Sausage, this is about 10 links. I do 1/2 sweet and 1/2 hot, but you can do all one or the other If you prefer.
1 Loaf Good Fresh Italian Bread, you want it thick and light with a nice crust. Get it from the bakery if you can.
Metal Skewers (17")
Pot Holders or Oven Gloves
Now What
Fire up your grill and put it on medium heat.
Using a fork, poke holes on all sides of your sausage, then place them on your skewers, leave a bit of space in between each sausage. If you are using a mix of hot and sweet, be sure to put all the hots on one end and all the sweet on the other so their juices and flavors don't co-mingle too much.
Now slice your italian bread lengthwise. If your bread is wide enough, you can butterfly it, if not, just just slice it in two. Bring your sausage and your bread to the grill, set bread to the side and place sausage on the grill. Cook one side for about 7 minutes and then flip and cook for another 7. Now remove from grill CAREFULLY, don't burn yourself. If you are using metal skewers be sure to grab them with potholders or gloves. Place sausage on bread and press bread down as demonstrated by mamma Weezie in the photo below, squeezing sausage juice into the bread. Return the sausage to the grill and cook for another 3 minutes, repeat bread press, return to grill and repeat bread press...you are going to repeat this every few minutes until your sausage is cooked, which is probably going to equal about 7 - 12 presses into the bread, you want that bread dirty and greasy!!!!
When your sausage is done, carefully remove it from the skewers and place diagonally in the bread, cut into 2" slices and serve.
Legit, this is SO GOOD, welcome to Dirty Bread Country!!! If you want to see videos of this process, check out the featured recipe stories on my instagram feed!
Take Note: The better the bread, the better your life. Full disclosure, this bread is from the supermarket and you can tell by it's thinness an density. Hit the bakery for the good stuff. It's worth it!