MUFFALETTA SANDWICH

 The Muffaletta sandwich is the signature sandwich of New Orleans and one of my favorites.  It consists of  loaf of Italian bread, olive salad and cold cuts.  It is traditionally made with a round loaf but can be made with sub loaves or as I did with a baguette for appetizer sized sandwiches.  The most important element of the sandwich is the olive salad..it's what makes the sandwich.  The traditional cold cuts are salami, capicola, Italian ham (prosciutto), mortadella and provolone cheese.
Make the olive salad at least a day before to let all the flavors meld.

Olive Salad
3 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2-2C green olives stuffed with pimentos (Spanish olives)
1-11/2 C Kalmata olives
1C roasted sweet peppers or pimentos
2Tbsp white wine vinegar
3Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1/4C olive oil
Put garlic into a food processor and mince add the rest of the ingredients, pulse to chop ( you can also chop all the ingredients by hand).  Cover and refrigerate.

olive salad

 For the sandwich
1/3lb salami
1/3lb mortadella
1/4-1/3lb prosciutto
1/4lb capicola
1/2lb provolone cheese
To put the sandwich together cut the loaf in half and scoop out some of the inside on both halves.  Drizzle the bottom half with a little olive oil.  Spread on a good amount of the olive salad

olive salad spread on bottom half, using a sub roll

top with the cold cuts and cheese.

cold cuts added

  Drizzle the top half of loaf with olive oil and spread with more olive salad, carefully place on top.
I like to kind of smash the sandwich down and wrap tightly in plastic wrap for at least half an hour.
To serve cut the round into wedges.

Voila!  Best sandwich ever

*For those of you in Sacramento, Taylor's Market has a great Muffaletta sandwich, the only problem is they don't make it all the time.