Muffaletta Sandwich

If you're an olive lover this is the sandwich for you. It's deeeelicious!

Ingredients:
1 loaf of 8 inch Italian bread
1 cup olive mix (see recipe below)
1/4 lb sliced ham
1/4 lb sliced mortadella
1/4 lb sliced Genoa salami
1/4 lb sliced provolone
1/4 lb sliced mozzarella

Preparation:

1. Cut bread in half horizontally.
2. Spread half with olive mix then layer on meats and cheeses.
3. Cover with top. (Note: Ideally the sandwich should be made an hour or more in advance and then tightly wrapped in plastic wrap to enable juices to soak bread.)
4. Slice into quarters and serve.

The Olive Salad mixture.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup pimento-stuffed olives
1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
1/4 cup giardiniera (Italian pickled vegetables)
2 lg. pepperoncini
3 - 4 pickled onions
2 Tbsp. capers
1 md. clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
A couple of grinds of blackpepper
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Preparation:

1. Drain all ingredients.
2. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.

Richard,

I'm not sure if you have ever visited this deli, but if you haven't I highly recommend it. The deli is known as Central Grocery and is located in the french market in New Orleans. I'm not sure, but I believe they either invented the muffaletta or at a minimum made it famous. This is a small Italian deli that has a great ambiance; aromatic as well as visual. I use to drive trucks while in college and would go to the NO once a month or so to pick up a load at the docks. I always stopped at Central Grocery to buy muff's...nothing better!

Mark - I agree. We lived in Gulfport, MS the last half of the 80s, and when we visited the French Quarter, we loved to get muffalettas at Central Grocery. Nobody made them better. I hope they are still in business. I think I'll google them and see. Here we are, just a few miles from there, but it isn't on our schedule. Maybe next time through, we should stay long enough to drive over to NOLA for a day. Mmmmmm beignets for breakfast, muffalettas for lunch - what could be better?

Tater

Hurricanes for Happy Hour!!

There was a piece on one of the cable channels about Central Grocery in New Orleans. That was the first I had ever heard of a Muffaletta sandwich. I love olives so I just had to have one. Since there isn't a deli or restaurant in my neck of the woods that serves one, I found that recipe.

Hmmm, Hurricanes with a New Orleans style sandwich, how appropriate.

Scruffy and Tater wrote:Mmmmmm beignets for breakfast, muffalettas for lunch - what could be better?

Tater

I doesn't get much better than that. I had 2 semesters at LSU that a couple of buddies and I had a 3 hour break at lunch time...On more than one occasion (read at least 2-3 times a month) we would leave campus & drive to NO, get a muff at Central Grocery, walk across the levee and eat lunch. We may have partaken in drinking an adult beverage or two. Then haul butt back to LSU for class. Sure was hard to stay awake after that lunch!!! but it sure was fun!

Richard Mondavi wrote:There was a piece on one of the cable channels about Central Grocery in New Orleans. That was the first I had ever heard of a Muffaletta sandwich. I love olives so I just had to have one. Since there isn't a deli or restaurant in my neck of the woods that serves one, I found that recipe.

Richard, these things are big, about 8-10" in diameter and a couple of inches thick...and that is just the bread w/o the meat and fixin's. In my younger days, a whole muff was nothing, today if I eat a 1/4 I'm doing well. I'm fortunate, I work in Plano, TX and there is a small NO's style restaurant that has a good muff (not quit as good as Central Grocery, but a heck of a lot closer)! The family loves going there for lunch/supper!