Riff on cheesesteak sandwich is easy using your sheet pan

Here’s yet another clever way to make a sheet pan meal.

The sheet pan is a workhorse in the kitchen. I reach for it to roast fruits and vegetables, toast nuts, dry-brine my spatchcocked Thanksgiving turkey and just to catch drips under casseroles, but I think I appreciate it most of all when it serves as a vessel for the whole meal.

Sheet pan suppers — whole cookbooks and websites are dedicated to the topic — are one of those once-trendy cooking techniques that caught on and will never go away. (Last year, the Washington Post’s food writers demonstrated just how festive the vessel could be with our Thanksgiving Sheet Pan Plan. I contributed a Sheet Pan Chicken With Hasselback Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts that I was pretty darn proud of.)

I’m always looking for clever ways to make a sheet pan meal, so when I saw a recipe for Sheet Pan Cheesesteak, I decided to give it a shot. I adapted this recipe from one that inspired me. It used ground meat and required using a skillet, too, but I found I could do the whole thing on the sturdy kitchen pan.

I preferred to use thinly sliced rib-eye steak. (To make the steak easier to thinly slice, place it in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to firm up. Not essential, but it makes a difference.) Then I added the meat, sliced peppers, onion and mushrooms to the sheet pan, tossing that with a little oil, salt and pepper. I roasted that for about 10 minutes, stirred it around a bit and roasted it for another 10 minutes until the edges of the foods were slightly charred.

Frankly, I could have eaten the mixture just like that, with maybe some white or brown rice, but, by then, I was craving that cheesy sandwich.

I did have to dirty one bowl to transform the mixture into the desired sandwich filling. I microwaved cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce and mustard, stirred that together and tossed it with the meat mixture until it was well-coated. I spread the meat and vegetables out as evenly as possible on the pan and topped it with thinly sliced provolone. Then I returned the pan to the oven until the cheese was nicely melted.

It’s best to serve it fresh from the oven on your favorite toasted or warmed rolls, split open and smeared with butter or mayonnaise, if you like.

The rich sandwich is definitely an occasional indulgence. We used cream cheese, an idea borrowed from cookbook author Christy Denney, to give the mixture of peppers and meat the expected cheesesteak creaminess, but you could cut back on the cheese by just adding the sliced cheese or sub in your favorite low-fat creamy and sliced cheeses. You could consider a whole grain bun as well.

Is this the classic version of this sandwich made famous in Philadelphia? Absolutely not, but it is a way to get a meaty, cheese riff on a weeknight. Thanks again, sheet pan.