Classic Muffuletta
I love the city of New Orleans. It is my favorite city. The vibrancy, the culture, the community, THE FOOD! Cooking New Orleans style food is one of my favorite cuisines to make. The process of cooking something low and slow shines in so many New Orleans style recipes like gumbo, etouffee, and red beans and rice (get my recipe in Staples+5: 100 Simple.
Recipes to Make the Most of Your Pantry.) New Orleans culinarians have even put the concept of low and slow into a sandwich—the classic muffuletta.
There isn’t any actual cooking required to make a muffuletta unless you’re going to bake the bread. The low and slow part comes from allowing the olive salad to marinate and later allowing the constructed sandwich to marinate before cutting and serving. The muffuletta is a great sandwich for crowds because it improves as it sits. Make this sandwich ahead of time, but it up, and put it on a platter with some delicious pickles and you can’t forget the famous New Orleans kettle-style Zapp’s potato chips.
It is not a coincidence that a muffuletta is loaded with Italian cut meats, also known as charcuterie. It was Sicilian immigrant Salvatore Lupo who sold the first muffuletta sandwich back in 1906. Lupo owned a grocery store in Louisiana and noticed farmers buying ingredients for sandwiches. He created his own olive salad and began putting all of those components together. The name muffuletta came from the Sicilian-style bread he got from a neighborhood baker. A traditional muffuletta has salami, ham, and mortadella layered with Swiss and provolone cheese. The top and bottom slice of the bread is always spread with olive salad.
I chose a few different meats and cheeses in my recipe while staying true to the Italian roots of the sandwich. I choose sweet capicola over the ham (you can totally do hot capicola) and sliced mozzarella cheese over the Swiss.
To mayo or not to mayo is another great “upgrade” option to a muffuletta. You may find some muffuletta recipes, including an aioli or plain mayonnaise. Some even combine the olive salad with mayonnaise to give it additional texture and make it more spreadable. My preference is to spread Duke’s mayo on one-half of the bread. I don’t think it’s required for both. Don’t get me wrong—HATE a dry sandwich, but the olive spread has a juiciness to it, combined with the mayo, that makes the perfect combination. It’s been said that if a muffuletta isn’t dripping down your arms when you eat it, then you haven’t prepared it correctly.
Keep it traditional or change things up with your proteins, cheeses, and spreads. Substitute ciabatta bread if you can’t find muffuletta or don’t want to make it yourself. You have options with this sandwich. Either way, give it time to sit, and merry and enjoy every delicious bite! “Laissez les bons temps rouler!”
Classic Muffuletta
Keep it traditional, or change things up with your proteins, cheeses, and spreads. Substitute ciabatta bread if you can’t find muffuletta or don’t want to make it yourself. You have options with a muffuletta sandwich. Either way, give it time to sit and merry and enjoy every delicious bite! “Laissez les bons temps rouler!”
Ingredients
- 1 loaf of muffuletta bread or 4 small loaves of ciabatta
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 cup olive salad, divided
- 0.25 oz mortadella
- 0.25 oz sweet or hot capicola
- 0.25 oz genoa salami
- 4-5 slices of mozzarella cheese
- 4-5 slices provolone
Instructions
- Slice the muffuletta to open the bread giving two rounds—a top and a bottom. Carefully tear out some of the bottom of the bread, leaving the crust intact and creating a crater for olive salad. Spread mayonnaise on the top half of the bread. Distribute one half of the olive salad on both halves of bread.
- Beginning with meat, layer meats, and cheese evenly over the bottom layer of bread. Enclose the sandwich by topping the bottom half with the top half. Tightly wrap the sandwich in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour. Remove the sandwich from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before serving. Cut the sandwich into 4-8 pieces and serve.
Notes
Some enjoy the sandwich lightly toasted. To toast or warm the sandwich, wrap it with aluminum foil instead of plastic wrap. After sitting for 1 hour, warm the sandwich in a 350° oven for 10-15 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.
Leftover sandwich slices can be wrapped tightly with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. Keep in mind the sandwich may be soggy after sitting for a day or two.
