Muffaletta
The Muffaletta sandwich contains my favorite savory things: delicious bread, cheese, and thinly sliced charcuterie meat. And the olive salad…oh how wonderful! This sandwich originated in New Orleans at the Central Grocery. It is still served there today, so if you go to New Orleans, you absoutely MUST go to Central Grocery and try the original.
Years ago, EJ and I would order a huge Muffaletta from Callahan’s Deli in Destin whenever we went to the beach. It was a tradition for us for many years, as the sandwich was just delicious. Made on a large round sesame-seed topped bread loaf, perfectly steamed, with cheese, a salty spicy Italian olive salad and just loaded up with deli meats. Delish! Of course, we then decided to try to replicate the sandwich at home, like we often do when eating out. The reason this is even notable is that I am not a sandwich person. I love bread and cheese and meats, especially pepperoni and salami; just usually seperated out instead of on a sandwich.
Ingredients
In recreating the Muffaletta at home, I knew it would be all about the olive salad. Olive salad is typical of an antipasti, and is the condiment that truly makes the sandwich Sicilian-American. So I knew I had to get it right. I set about chopping olives, adding various spices and veggies to them, and, after many tries and fails over the years, came up with a really good combination of flavors. And I must say, my olive salad MAKES this sandwich. You can buy olive salad in a jar, but…why?? The homemade version is just so much better. Any leftovers are delicious in tuna salad. My favorite tuna is Tonnino Tuna in Olive Oil. THE best.
As for the bread, we get a large round Italian loaf from a bakery in our neighborhood. I have made variations on different types of breads and rolls. The best bread is one that is soft, but sturdy enough to hold the ingredients together without getting soggy and falling apart. We use a round bread that is called Italian Focaccia. This loaf looks alot like sourdough or ciabatta when cut in half.
For the meats, I get super thinly sliced smoked ham, pepperoni and salami from the deli. You can of course choose your favorite meats. For the sliced cheese, I do both mozzerella and provolone, also freshly sliced from the deli. So now you have it: the best olive salad, the bread, the thin sliced meats and cheeses. This Muffaletta is SO GOOD!
Muffaletta
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped pimento stuffed green olives
- 1/2 cup chopped black black olives
- 1 green onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped fine
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped fine
- zest of one lemon
- squeeze of fresh lemon juice to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- generous pinch red pepper flakes
- pinch salt
- 1 loaf round Italian bread about 20 ounces
- 1/4 pound thinly sliced smoked ham
- 1/4 pound sliced pepperoni
- 1/4 pound sliced salami
- 1/4 pound sliced mozzerella cheese
- 1/4 pound sliced provolone cheese
Instructions
- Combine olive oil and next 11 ingredients to make the olive salad. Stir well, cover, and let sit in refrigerator at least 2 hours.
- Cut bread in half horizontally. Scoop out just a bit of the top and bottom of the bread, leaving a thick shell of bread. This will help hold in the olive salad. Spoon about half of the olive salad, draining off some of the oil, into the bottom of the bread shell. Top with provolone slices in a single layer.
- Layer half of the ham, salami, and pepperoni on top of the provolone. Then put a single layer of mozzerella on top of the meat. Layer another layer of meats on top of the mozzerella.
- Put one last layer of provolone slices on top of the meat, and finish up with more olive salad. Place the bread lid on top of the sandwich.
- *At this point, you can wrap the sandwich tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for up to 6 hours, if making ahead of time. Before heating, take out of fridge for an hour before heating.*
- Preheat oven to 375°. Wrap sandwich in foil and heat for 10-20 minutes, until inside of sandwich is warm. Cut in wedges and serve. Mangia!