Cuban Midnight Sandwich (Medianoche)
Medianoche Say it: meh-dee-ah-NOH-cheh
Medianoche — literally "midnight" — is Cuba's late-night sandwich: thin-sliced roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese and pickles on a soft, faintly sweet egg bread, pressed until the crust crisps and the cheese runs. It carries the same filling as the Cuban sandwich, but the tender, slightly sweet roll makes it unmistakable. Sold from cafeterias and street counters in Havana and Miami, it is eaten warm and flattened after a night out, usually with a cold drink.
Cuban Midnight Sandwich (Medianoche)
Medianoche
Pronounced meh-dee-ah-NOH-cheh
- Serves
- 4
- Prep
- 40 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 45 min
- Total
- 2 hr 25 min
- Level
- Medium
Also nut-free.
Allergens: contains gluten, milk, egg, mustard, sesame. Check labels on packaged ingredients.
Ingredients
Amounts are scaled. Cooking times and pan sizes stay the same.
Mojo pork
Sweet egg rolls (or use 4 challah or brioche rolls)
Filling and griddling
Method
Stir the orange juice, lime juice, garlic, cumin, oregano, 1 1/2 tsp salt, pepper and olive oil together. Put the pork in a shallow dish, pour the mojo over, cover and marinate at least 1 hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Move the pork and its marinade to a small baking dish, cover tightly with foil and roast 1 hour 15 minutes, until a fork slides in with almost no resistance. Uncover, raise the heat to 425°F (220°C) and roast 10–12 minutes more, until the top is browned and the edges caramelize. Rest 10 minutes, then slice very thin.
For the bread, stir the flour, sugar, yeast and 1 tsp salt together, then add the 2 eggs and the warm milk and mix to a shaggy dough. Knead 8 minutes until smooth, work in the softened butter a piece at a time, and knead 3–4 minutes more until soft and tacky.
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm spot 1–1 1/2 hours, until doubled. Punch it down, divide into 4 pieces, shape into 6-inch (15 cm) ovals and set them on a lined baking sheet. Cover and rise 45 minutes, until puffy.
Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Brush the rolls with egg wash, scatter sesame seeds if using, and bake 18–22 minutes, until deep golden and hollow-sounding when tapped. Cool completely before splitting.
Split the rolls and spread mustard on both cut sides. Layer the sliced pork, then the ham, then the cheese, then the pickles, dividing everything evenly. Close the sandwiches and press them gently with your hand.
Melt 1 tbsp of the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Griddle two sandwiches at a time under a weighted pan (or in a sandwich press), 3–4 minutes per side, until the bread is crisp and golden and the cheese has melted. Repeat with the remaining butter, then cut on the diagonal and serve hot.
Regional variant: Cuban Sandwich (Sándwich cubano)
The identical filling is built on crustier Cuban bread (pan cubano) instead of the sweet egg roll, and in Tampa a few thin slices of Genoa salami are added between the ham and the cheese. Press and griddle exactly as above, but give the firmer bread about 1 minute more per side and a slightly heavier weight so it compresses properly.
Cook's notes
- Chill the roasted pork before slicing so you can cut it paper-thin; thick slabs make a bulky sandwich that will not press flat.
- The weight matters more than the heat: a heavy pan or a foil-wrapped brick gives the dense, crackly crust that defines a medianoche.
- Bake the rolls a day ahead if you like — day-old bread presses better and soaks up less mustard.
Serve with
Cold beer, a cortadito or a cold malta, with extra pickle spears and plantain chips alongside.
Make ahead and storage
Roast the pork and bake the rolls up to 2 days ahead; refrigerate separately and reheat the pork gently with a splash of its juices. Griddle the assembled sandwiches just before serving.
