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Atticus top chef Matt Wick preps to assemble vegan “soppressata.”

You can’t imagine how Matt Wick can pack so many flavors into one juicy meatless sandwich.

Until you watch him make it.

Plant-based cooking in the Elm City.

Wick is the culinary director (aka top food guy) for Atticus Bookstore Cafe on Chapel Street in downtown New Haven.

The flavorful concoction in question is a vegan tofu sandwich. It sells for $7. A testament to food science, it can fill you up for at least half a day with satisfying commingling bursts of tart and sweet and crunch and chew.

We wanted to make the vegan counterpart to our soppressata,” Wick said, referring to the popular Italian salami sandwich.

Inside Atticus’s Chabaso bakery on James Street, Wick offered the Independent’s Vegan Vittler a demonstration of what he came up with. Each ingredient had a story.

Like the first ingredient, the slab” bread, a sourdough ciabatta developed by Chabaso’s Josh Kanter and Charlie Negaro Jr. It’s naturally leavened with freshly milled grain. Similar to pizza dough. Wick discovered that leftover pizza dough worked splendidly as sandwich bread years ago when he worked at a Chester wood-fired pizza spot called Otto.

Wick’s first mentor over his 15-year culinary career was legendary vegan chef Mark Shadle (who now co-runs the celebrated Branford plant-based G Zen). Wick worked for Shadle when Shadle ran Middletown’s vegetarian It’s Only Natural restaurant. Shadle exposed Wick to the creativity and limitations” of vegan cuisine. That came in handy years later when Wick hit on the second ingredient for his vegan tofu sandwich: The mayo.” Wick’s vegan version is derived from aquafaba,” chickpea water.

Instead of egg we use the chickpea water as the emulsifer,” Wick, who spent three years eating vegan before returning to omnivory, explained as he slathered the mayo” onto the sliced slab. The protein in the chickpeas takes in the oil and allows it to emulsify with the other ingredients.”

Next up: The heart, or meat” of the sandwich. Wick sliced up pre-baked sturdy yet flexible hunks of Middletown-made Bridge tofu (also the Vittler’s go-to brand at home). Wick finds it denser and firmer than mass-produced brands, with the right chew.” To pull off the soppressata vibe, he marinated the tofu in advance in miso, mustard, olive oil, garlic, red wine vinegar, and oregano. That’s right: for the most part, the traditional Italian flavors.

Wick added a layer of bite with a bed of fresh arugula …

… followed by a parade of toppings: saba, a grape reduction similar to balsamic vinegar (but not vinegar) left over from wine-making; pickled local hot cherry peppers, olive oil.

Behold: Here it is again. The completed masterpiece.

Wick makes a point of preparing the sandwiches the night before they go on sale at Atticus. He wraps them tight in plastic, so all those flavors have time to coalesce into one symphony.

They had already fused into a sum greater than their parts when the Vittler sampled the sandwich fresh off Wick’s cutting board. Now the flavor-wizardry could be believed, and savored. With plenty left over for later.

Previous Vegan Vittler” stories:

Bloodless Cheesesteak” Served, With Love
Chapel Street Goes B” Natural

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