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1
Heat the oven to 150 °C. Combine the oregano, basil, minced garlic and black pepper and rub the mixture thoroughly over all surfaces of the roast. Set the roast on a rack in a deep roasting pan. Roast uncovered for 3 to 4 hours until the meat is fully tender throughout and yields easily when probed with a skewer.
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2
Remove the roast from the oven. Pour off all pan drippings and reserve them. Allow the roast to cool to room temperature, then wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight until completely cold and firm. This step is required: a warm or merely cool roast cannot be sliced to the necessary thinness.
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3
This is where the dish lives or dies. Using a deli slicer, slice the cold roast paper-thin — each slice almost translucent. Thick slices produce a roast beef sandwich; only paper-thin slices, layered and softened in jus, produce Italian beef. Hand-slicing cannot achieve the necessary thinness.
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4
Degrease the reserved pan drippings and combine them with the beef stock, additional oregano and basil in a wide saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer and taste for seasoning. Add the sliced beef to the jus and warm through, stirring gently to separate the slices and coat them entirely. The jus should be well seasoned, deeply savoury and aromatic with the herbs.
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5
Open each Italian roll without fully separating it. Using tongs, pile the jus-soaked beef generously into each roll. For a "wet" sandwich, ladle jus over the filled roll. For a "dipped" sandwich — the canonical Chicago preparation — submerge the entire assembled sandwich briefly in the jus so that the bread is saturated and jus runs freely. The bread should be soaked through, not merely moistened.
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6
Top with a generous spoonful of giardiniera — its vinegar heat and oil cut against the richness of the jus — or with sweet roasted peppers. Serve immediately, with napkins in quantity.