Waffle Iron Cubano Sandwiches

One of the things I love most about making roast pork is that sometime in the next week I can make cubano sandwiches. This combination of sliced pork, ham, and swiss cheese is my personal favorite, and even though my wife is normally fond of neither mustard or pickles - two essential ingredients in a cubano - for some reason she finds the sandwich just as delicious as I do. I think the hot pressed sandwich has a certain alchemy to it whereby the individual components become difficult to discern but impossible to do without, which is why it is absolutely essential that the sandwich be pressed and not merely toasted . To this end you can use a sandwich press if you have one, or a George Foreman Grill for that matter, but I've found that a waffle iron does the trick just as well and makes for an interesting presentation to boot.

For the sandwich:

1 pound roast pork, sliced thinly (1/4" to 1/8")
1/2 pound deli-sliced ham
1/2 sliced Swiss cheese
4 Tb brown mustard
4 dill pickle spears, sliced thinly
1 loaf Italian flatbread, sliced in half and cut into four equal portions

Heat waffle iron. Assemble your cubano sandwich by spreading 1 Tb of mustard on the bottom layer of the flatbread, topping with sliced pork, Swiss cheese, ham, pickle slices, and the upper half of the bread. Place in waffle iron and press down hard for 3-5 minutes per sandwich. Cut in half and serve immediately (preferably with sweet potato fries!).

Makes 4 sandwiches.