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'Wich of the Week: Hot Muffuletta

YumSugar — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:00:15 -0800

Mardi Gras puts me in the mood for muffulettas, but this year I wanted to move beyond the classic recipe for the New Orleans cold-cut monstrosity. Invented by Sicilian immigrants in the French Quarter around 1906 - the Central Grocery lays claim to the original - a muffuletta actually tastes better after a few hours. Served at room temperature, the signature olive salad soaks the roll, making the salami, ham, mortadella, and cheese deliciously moist and creamy.

The last time I went to New Orleans, a friend of mine told me that she thinks the Napoleon House serves even better muffulettas than Central Grocery, so of course I had to try the sandwich at this cafe/bar founded in 1917. To hear all about it and get my re-created recipe, read more.

The Napoleon House's version is served hot, and the topic of warm vs. cold muffulettas can lead to very heated debates around the Crescent City. In my mind, the two sandwiches offer entirely different experiences. A heated muffuletta doesn't improve with age, but it does deliver the greasy goodness of a hot pastrami sandwich with melted cheese.

The Napoleon House, in fact, replaces the mortadella with pastrami, alongside salami and Italian ham. Its olive salad was greener than what I've had in the past - and by green I mean it had lots of green olives and capers, plus chickpeas. The sandwich was delicious, but I think I still prefer my muffulettas cold; the heat made the olive salad too runny and messy. But if you love toasty-warm sandwiches, this twist is definitely worth trying. Muffulettas are typically served on special sesame-seeded buns about 10 inches in diameter, but if you can't find muffuletta bread (which you probably can't outside Louisiana), seeded Kaiser rolls work just fine. This sandwich is best served with a side of potato chips, since your belly won't be able to accommodate much more. Here's how to make it.

Hot Muffuletta Sandwich
Inspired by Napoleon House

Ingredients

For the olive salad (makes enough for 6 to 8 sandwiches):
1 cup pimiento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained, rinsed, and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup diced carrot
1/8 cup capers
2 gloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
For the sandwich:
2 slices pastrami
2 slices ham
4 slices Genoa salami
3 slices provolone cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive salad (depending on size of roll)
One muffuletta loaf or seeded kaiser roll

Directions

Preferably one day in advance, make the olive salad. Combine all 12 ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Store overnight in a tightly sealed container.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Slice the seeded rolls in half, hamburger-bun style. On the bottom slice, brush a thin layer of olive oil.
Atop that base of bread, stack the ham, salami, and pastrami. Top with a layer of olive salad about 1-inch thick.
Lay the cheese slices over the olive salad and cover with top half of bun.
Place the entire sandwich in the oven for approximately 5 minutes, until bread is slightly toasted and cheese is melted.
Slice in half and serve.

Makes one sandwich.

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'Wich of the Week: Muffuletta

YumSugar — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:13:31 -0800

Yesterday was Super Tuesday and Fat Tuesday, so I decided to celebrate with the super-fat New Orleans sandwich known as the muffuletta. Though lesser-known than the Big Easy's other big-bread creation, the po'boy, today's 'Wich of the Week is just as beloved.

Invented about a century ago by the French Quarter's Central Grocery, this sandwich is made on massive rounds of Italian bread cut into quarters; one sandwich easily feeds two to four people. I've never been able to find the bread outside of New Orleans, so I substitute seeded kaiser rolls.

The key to a good muffuletta - which features piles of ham, salami, mortadella, and provolone cheese - is Italian olive salad. Central Grocery closely guards its recipe, but Boscoli's version is hard to beat. This time I decided to make my own, and I was quite pleased with the results; to get the recipe for the olive salad and the sandwich, plus lots of photos, read more.

Muffaletta

For the olive salad:

1 cup green pimiento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup diced carrot
2 gloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup roasted red pepper, finely chopped
2 T. dried parsley
1 T. dried oregano
1 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 T. white-wine vinegar
2 T. lemon juice

For the sandwich:

2 slices mortadella
2 slices ham
4 slices salami
3 slices provolone cheese
Olive salad
One seeded kaiser roll or similar

How to make it:

Preferably one day in advance, make the olive salad. Combine all 11 ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Store overnight in a tightly sealed container.
Next, slice the seeded rolls in half, hamburger bun-style, and hollow out the top slice by scraping out most of the fluffy bread.

On the bottom slice, spread a thin layer of olive salad, just enough to hold the sandwich together.
Atop that slice, stack the mortadella, ham, salami, and cheese.

Then, fill the hollowed-out section of the top slice with a generous helping of olive salad.

Assemble the sandwich by placing the olive-filled half of the roll atop the meat, and slice in half to eat.

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Sunday BBQ: Grilled Vegetable Muffuletta

YumSugar — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:00:12 -0700

When you take over the grill tonight, test out a vegetarian barbecue option that's not so redundant: a meatless take on the New Orleans muffuletta sandwich. With crusty bread and warm, caramelized slices of eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, and mushrooms, this sandwich is a scrumptious, filling, and nutritious variation of the hearty Louisiana original. For extra creaminess and crunch, you can toast the bread and the provolone on the grill, too. Make this your new favorite veggie sandwich and read more.

Grilled Vegetable Muffuletta
From Every Day With Rachael Ray

Ingredients

1 eggplant, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 zucchini, sliced 1/2 inch thick on an angle
1 red bell pepper, quartered lengthwise
1 large portobello mushroom cap
1 red onion, sliced 3/4 inch thick
6 ounces baby spinach
1/3 cup pine nuts (a generous handful)
2/3 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese (a couple generous handfuls)
1 cup store-bought giardiniera (pickled vegetable salad)
1/2 cup pitted green olives
One 8- to 9-inch round loaf crusty bread
1/4 pound deli-sliced provolone cheese
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high. Lightly brush the eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, portobello and red onion with 1/4 cup olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Cover and grill, turning once, until charred, about 6 minutes.
Using a food processor, puree the spinach, pine nuts and parmigiano-reggiano; season with salt and pepper. With the machine on, drizzle in the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil. Transfer the pesto to a bowl; rinse the food processor.
Using the food processor, pulse the giardiniera and olives into a coarse relish.
Slice the top quarter off the bread and scoop out the insides. Spread half the pesto on the inside of the bread, layer with half of the grilled vegetables, then spoon the remaining pesto on top. Fill the bread with the remaining vegetables and top with the provolone. Spread the inside of the bread top with the vegetable relish and set into place. Press down firmly, then cut into wedges.

Serves 4.

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Do You Know What's Cooking This Week?

YumSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:30:28 -0800

After settling down from Valentine's Day, we geared up for our favorite awards show of the year: the Oscars! We also bit our nails over the first half of the Top Chef finale and rang in Mardi Gras with a muffuletta sandwich and a bananas foster bombe. Were you paying attention? Find out when you take our quiz!

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