Specially Selected Italian Bread

Subs are my weakness. Give me some meats and cheeses inside a loaf of French or Italian bread — with a side of chips, maybe — and you can count me all set. I know such a sub often comes with sodium, carbs, fat, and other things like nitrates, so I eat subs only on occasion … but I’m still a fan.

Most of the time, when I get a sub, I buy one already assembled. My local grocer sells a delightful footlong that has a number of meats and cheeses, as do a few deli shops in my area. However, if the mood strikes me, I might make one of my own. I just need the ingredients.

Aldi keeps a small but useful bakery section that includes several breads. During a recent shopping trip, I decided to pick up the components for a simple Italian sub, starting with this key component.

Specially Selected Italian Bread is an Aldi Regular Buy. You can find it on shelves every day. It comes in a 16-ounce loaf and currently costs $3.79 at my local store, or 23.6 cents an ounce. The package doesn’t list a country of origin, which suggests it is made in the United States.

Nutritionally, the primary ingredient is enriched flour. It also includes a few other ingredients, including salt and vinegar. Each two-ounce serving contains 140 calories, 330 milligrams of sodium (14% of the recommended daily allowance), and 29 grams of carbs (11%). The bread also contains 0.5 grams of fat and 1 gram of fiber. On the mineral front, each serving has 2 milligrams of iron (10% of the recommended daily amount).

The nutrition label lists wheat as an allergen.

This is a take-and-bake bread … and yes, it should be baked. While it is sold at room temperature and has the appearance of being baked already, the loaf as sold is dense and not nearly as good as when you bake it. (Trust us, we tried it both ways.) To bake, you should preheat the oven to 375 degrees, then bake for 10-12 minutes. If you want a crispier bread, add 3-5 minutes to that time.

If you don’t want to bake it up right away, you can freeze it. It has a best by sticker, so be mindful of that. Of note: if you do decide to freeze the bread after buying it, the instructions direct you to thaw it for one hour before baking.

Our testers universally liked this bread. We baked it for 10 minutes and it came out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. We decked it out with Aldi’s Italian meats alongside Aldi provolone, which made for a delightful (if not-exactly-healthy) Italian-style sub. Besides sandwiches, this bread would be good simply sliced and buttered, or served as garlic bread.

The Verdict:

We’re fans of Specially Selected Italian Bread. It bakes up in 10 minutes, has a crisp exterior and a fluffy, airy interior, and it has a nice flavor. We loved it when paired with Italian meats and cheeses. It’s not the healthiest bread out there so we won’t be getting it often, but we’re not against buying it again. Worth a look if you’re in the market for an Italian bread.