Author Notes
My parents and I went to New Orleans together when I was in my fourth year of medical school. At the end of the visit, I was in a haze from overeating, but fit in a muffuletta sandwich from the Central Market. This is a flexible recipe, please adjust as you wish. My son the Critic loved his vegetarian muffuletta. My daughter was skeptical about sitting on the sandwich but had to admit it was better squished. Once you make the olive salad, you can have sandwiches all week. —luvcookbooks
Ingredients
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6
cloves garlic, chopped
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4 tablespoons
olive oil
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2 cups
green olives, pitted and chopped
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1 cup
black olives, pitted and chopped
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4
ribs celery with leaves, chopped
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2 tablespoons
capers
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1
sprig lovage, chopped
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2
sprigs basil, chopped
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3/4 cup
olive oil
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2 tablespoons
sherry vinegar
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salt and pepper
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1/2 teaspoon
red pepper flakes
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1 cup
red Peppadew peppers
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1 cup
artichoke hearts in oil, thinly sliced and well drained
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1/2 pound
prosciutto, sliced
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1/4 pound
mortadella
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1/4 pound
roasted parma cotto
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1/4 pound
sweet sopressata
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1 pound
fresh mozzarella
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3
loaves of strong, crusty bread
Directions
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Warm the garlic in the olive oil. It should not color at all, in fact it should not sizzle. This takes the acrid edge off it. Let it cool while you prepare the rest of the salad.
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Mix all ingredients down to Peppadew pepper together. Add the garlic. Taste for seasoning and adjust as desired. This is your olive salad.
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Cut each loaf of bread in half horizontally. Some recipes will tell you to pull out the crumb, but this is heinous. Spoon olive salad onto the bottom half of the bread. You just want a thinnish layer, one olive shard deep.
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Slice the Peppadew peppers and artichoke hearts and lay over the olive salad.
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Thinly slice the mozzarella and place over the peppers and artichoke hearts.
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Layer on three slices of cold cuts. I think it's best to use either prosciutto or the cotto but not both together.
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Cover the cold cuts with another layer of olive salad and top with the top half of the bread.
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Repeat with the other loaves of bread.
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This step requires a leap of faith. Wrap the loaves in foil or cut them into sections that will fit in a ziploc bag. Then sit on them until they are nicely squished, about 15 minutes. Some people will apply heat to the sandwiches instead, but again, this is heinous.
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Enjoy these with a seltzer. Afterwards, be sure you either brush your teeth or chew some sugarless gum if you will be interacting with the public.
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