Muffaletta: A Mardi Gras Favorite

The Muffaletta is a sandwich layered with provolone, mozzarella, mortadella, salami, ham, and an olive salad. It's named for the loaf of bread that this sandwich is traditionally built on. It was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans... a New Orleans original just in time for Mardi Gras!

You can buy pre-made olive salad, but where's the fun in that? We made our own using our Beano's Submarine Dressing.

What you'll need:

For the olive salad (makes enough for about 3-4 sandwiches):

• 1 cup of green olives
• 1 cup of black olives
• 1 cup of giardiniera 
• 1/2 cup of Beano's Original Submarine Dressing

For the rest of the sandwich (per sandwich):

• 1 small loaf of your favorite bread
• 5 slices of mortadella (a deli meat, ask for it at your deli counter, they should know what you're looking for)
• 4 slices of salami
• 2 slices of mozzarella cheese
• 2 slices of provolone cheese
• 4 thin slices of ham

To make the olive salad, put all of the ingredients except the sub dressing in a food processor (just enough to chop them up, you don't want your pieces too small) if you have one. If not, chop everything up by hand. 

Put your chopped up olives and giardiniera in a bowl and add the sub dressing. Mix well and let it sit for as long as you can (overnight preferably).

Once your olive salad has soaked up all of the flavor from the sub dressing, you can build the rest of the sandwich.

Cut the loaf in half and on the bottom half, start to build your sandwich. Start with the ham, ribbon all 4 pieces along the bread, then layer 2 pieces of the salami on top of that.

Then, lay the mozzarella cheese down, before you add the mortadella. It's not necessary to roll the mortadella, but it looks nice and adds some height to the sandwich.

On top of that, add the layer of provolone, the rest of your salami, and then it's time to add the star of this sandwich: the olive salad! Scoop on as much as want and feel free to eat some as a side as well! Top your sandwich, and there you have it. 

Join us next week for a look at cold cuts, just in time for National Cold Cuts Day!