Muffaletta Salad

By Dabblings • July 15, 2011 • 0 Comments

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Author Notes: This recipe came about because of July's challenge for charcutepalooza. One of the things I noticed when I was looking online was that the majority of recipes that use mortadella were for a muffaletta sandwich. It's a New Orleans signature sandwich, and is essentially a frisbee sized sandwich a few inches thick... for two. Even in my hungriest of dreams, I couldn't imagine consuming that much food in one sitting. But looking out my back window into my garden at the nearly knee-high lettuce plants, an idea struck me. Instead of a sandwich, how about a salad? So I took all of the ingredients for a muffaletta sandwich, and adapted them . - Dabblings

Serves 4

Olive Salad Dressing

1/2 cup green olives; finely minced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano; minced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons garlic; finely minced
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

Combine all salad dressing ingredients in a pint mason jar. Shake well to infuse. Set aside.

The salad

4 slices of bread (1 per person)
1 garlic clove; minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh oregano; minced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 large handfuls of lettuce per person
1/4 pound thinly sliced genoa salami
1/4 pound thinly sliced Italian ham
1/4 pound cubed mortadella
1/4 pound thinly sliced provolone cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small saute pan, heat olive oil with minced garlic clove over low heat until oil is infused with garlic. Set oil aside.
Cut slices of bread into 1/2 inch cubes. Toss with garlic oil and fresh oregano. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Spread croutons on a greased baking sheet and bake until the croutons are dry and crispy, about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
Once croutons are dry, pull out of oven and set aside.
To assemble the salad, lay down one or two handfuls of lettuce per person, then top the salad with the salami, ham, mortadella, provolone cheese, and the croutons.
Drizzle the top of the salad with the olive dressing.