A Muffuletta for Game Day
Football season is here and I had to share this fan-favorite sandwich. I serve it at home while watching football games, but it also travels well to a tailgates. If you’ve been to New Orleans and enjoyed the quintessential New Orleans sandwich, the muffuletta, you know how delicious this sandwich tastes. Its a sandwich of cured meats, cheese and briny olive salad piled onto a sturdy Italian loaf. As much as I love the flavor, there’s always a little too much bread for my taste. I’ve created a French bread version with a filling to bread ratio that is much easier to prepare and serve. I purchase soft loaves of French bread which make it easier to bite into. If a seeded loaf is available I’ll use it, but unseeded loaves work just fine. I make them in advance and refrigerate until ready to bake. I also make them up to a week in advance and freeze. I thaw overnight in the refrigerator and set at room temperature for an hour or two before baking into a gooey perfection. A No Recipe version of this sandwich has been posted on my No Recipe Cooking page for years, and many of you have requested a written recipe with exact measurements. For those who prefer to follow a recipe with measurements, thank you for your feedback and I do hope you enjoy this recipe. Share your version with me on instagram @y_delicacies.
Muffuletta
Yvette Jemison YDelicacies.com
Servings: 6
French bread or aSturdy loaf of bread about 14 inches long
¼ cup oil from olive salad
½ pound thinly sliced ham
¼ pound thinly sliced hard salami
1 cup olive salad, drained
8 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
Heavy duty foil
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Slice the loaf of bread lengthwise and open until both cut sides are face up on the work surface.
3. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of oil from the olive salad on each cut side of the bread, and spread with the back of a spoon until the oil is soaked into the bread.
4. Lightly scrunch a slice of ham and set it on the bottom half of the loaf. Repeat with each slice of ham until the bottom half of the loaf is covered with clusters of ham.
5. Loosely fold each slice of salami in half and arrange to cover the ham layer.
6. Spoon the olive salad into the folds of the salami layer making sure to spread along the entire length of the loaf.
7. Top the olive salad with an overlapping layer of provolone cheese. Fold the top half of the loaf to close the sandwich. Use your hand to press back any filling that slides out.
8. Wrap the muffuletta in aluminum foil with the sealed edge on top of the loaf. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until the cheese is melted throughout the muffuletta, about 45 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before cutting into 2 inch thick slices.
