Italian Beach Sliders

Italian Beach Sliders- These mini sandwiches are the perfectly portable slider version of a classic Italian coldcut.

July 13, 2025 by Nicole Collins

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Today, we’re making Italian Beach Sliders!

I haven’t been to the beach in WAY too long, so consider this my official application to the universe to sign me up for a nice, relaxing beach day. You bring the white sand and crashing waves, I’ll bring the delicious sliders to fill our bellies.

Deal? Deal.

The little sliders we’re making today are basically the portable version of an Italian coldcut. We’re layering lunchmeat, cheese, and veggies into some savory slider buns, and bringing it to life with the simplest schmear (that I could practically drink).

So, let’s get to it!

For the bread of our sandwich, we want to use any kind of savory slider bun. I LOVE a seedy bread, so when I saw that Dave’s Killer Bread came out with sliders, those were the obvious choice for me. Ugh, they’re so good. But, you could also use brioche sliders, Kings savory butter sliders, or even dinner rolls. You just want to stay away from sweet Hawaiian rolls for this one. That’s not the vibe. Once we’ve selected our rolls of choice, we’ll carefully slice them in half through the center, and start building our sandwich.

The schmear, I think, is my favorite part of this sandwich. I make a full sized version of these sliders all of the time; and one day, I wanted a spread with a little more oomph than just mayo. I poked around in my fridge, the lightbulb went off, and I’ve never turned back.

So, we’re going to very simply mix some mayo with some restaurant style Italian salad dressing. Now, the dressing choice is important here. We don’t want a super oily dressing. We want one that’s more on the creamy side. So, I really like to use either the Olive Garden dressing or the Aldi version of the Olive Garden dressing. My recommendation is to stick with either one of those. So, we’ll mix the dressing with the mayo until it’s completely combined. Then, we’ll spread that schmear all over the top and bottom halves of the sandwich.

Now, it’s time to layer in our fillings. I like to use some deli turkey, some hard salami, and some muenster cheese as the base of our sandwich. For the turkey especially, make sure you don’t just lay the lunchmeat flat on the bottom bun. You have to floof it up a little bit to give it a little height and body. So, the turkey goes down first, followed by the salami and cheese, and then we’re ready for the veggies.

Next, we’ll layer on some slices of thin cut tomatoes. I like to press the tomato slices between 2 paper towels to try and drain out some of the excess liquid and seeds. This will help keep our sandwich from getting soggy. It’s also important to layer the tomatoes in between the cheese and lettuce layers for the same reason. Both will help to protect the bread so that it doesn’t get too soggy.

The next layer after the tomatoes is some thin slices of red onion. Then finally, we’ll layer on some shredded lettuce. And, that’s all there is too it. Now a quick note on the lettuce…I like to use green leaf lettuce, because it has a lower water content than a green like romaine. Because we want the sandwiches to be able to travel, we want to take all precautions possible to protect our bread from getting oversaturated. And, that’s one other trick to help do it.

All that’s left to do is close up the sandwich, cut the sliders into individual sandwiches, and pack them up for the beach (or the pool or a party or whatever you’re serving them). I actually got this super cute carrier on Amazon that let’s you transport disposable aluminum pans in a hard case for easy clean up without anything getting smooshed. I have these linked in my storefront if you’re interested!

These sandwiches are my favorite. There’s no other way to say it. The mayo/dressing schmear is the perfect combo of creamy and tangy without being overpowering or oily. The lunchmeat combo is classic without being an overwhelming bite of meat. The fresh veggies are basic but just enough to lighten up the whole sandwich. It’s a familiar bite in a cute little handheld package. What’s not to love?

Ok, everyone. I can hear the beach calling my name. How about you? Well, I don’t know about the beach, but I definitely hear these sammies calling my name.

I hope you guys enjoy. And, let’s eat!

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Italian Beach Sliders

Serves: 12          Print

Ingredients:

• 1 pack (12 rolls) savory slider rolls (I used Dave’s Killer Bread Rock’n’Rolls)

• ¾ cup mayonnaise

• ¼ cup restaurant style Italian dressing (I like the Aldi version of the Olive Garden brand)

• 7-8 oz deli oven roasted turkey

• 12 slices hard salami

• 7 slices muenster cheese (or provolone)

• 2-3 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced and patted dry

• ¼ of a red onion, thinly sliced

• 1 cup shredded green leaf lettuce

Directions:

1. Carefully slice slider rolls horizontally through the center, trying to keep the rolls attached as best as possible. (You should have one slab for the bottom and one for the top. It’s ok if they break, but it’s easier to assemble these when the rolls are still attached.)

2. In a mixing bowl, combine mayo and dressing. Mix well until fully combined. Spread mayo mix edge to edge over the cut side of both halves of bread.

3. Over the bottom half of the rolls, arrange, turkey, salami, cheese, tomatoes, onion, and lettuce (in that order) evenly over the bread. Place the top side of the rolls, cut side down, on top of the fillings to close the sandwich. Cut into 12 individual sandwiches following the seam of the rolls. Enjoy!
   

Recipe notes:

*Any kind of savory slider roll with work for this. I love a seedy bread, so I love the Dave’s Killer Rolls. Butter buns, brioche buns, or even savory Hawaiian rolls all work great for this too. Just stay away from sweet Hawaiian rolls.

*After you slice your tomatoes, let them sit in between a few paper towels to help absorb some of the extra liquid. This will help keep our sandwiches from getting soggy. 

*We want to use a lettuce with a lower water content so our sliders will last through a beach trip. So be sure to stick to a green or red leaf lettuce for this. Romaine and iceberg are a little too wet for these sliders.

*This is the carrying case I used to transport these. Toss it in a cooler, and these sliders will hold up well for a few hours!