Muffaletta LOVE

Chris and I were watching an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay the other night. Bobby was challenging owners of a New Orleans restaurant to see who could make the best Muffaleta. Muffaleta is an Italian sandwich that New Orleans is famous for. It has a specially-made bread, that contains olive salad, three kinds of Italian meats and two cheeses and lotsa olive oil.



The Serio brothers, owners of the restaurant, won the throw down HANDS DOWN. Their Muffaleta recipe is famous.



I swear Chris' mouth was absolutely watering at all of the Genoa, Provolone, Cappicola and all of the other great meats and cheeses in the sandwich. Of course I had to try it.



I scoured the internets (as our beloved President would say) for some Muffaleta recipes that closely approximated the Serio brothers' recipe. Of course you can't get their exact recipe (it's a secret).



I found a great site called Nolacuisine.com and borrowed their versions.



Here is the bread recipe. Bread



OK, don't even go there if you aren't going to make the bread. It's awesome.



The middle is dense and chewy. The only thing I didn't have was sesame seeds for the top, so in essence, my sandwich bread was not in the 100% TRUE Muffaleta style. Darn it!



ere it is all hot and steaming from the oven and freshly cut. YUM!!!



Next, the olive salad. Let me tell you, if I wasn't so prone to immediate and excruciatingly painful heartburn right now, I would have eaten this entire bowl. It is filled with garlic, pickled cauliflower, red pepper flakes, olives, olives and more olives, two types of hot peppers and loads of olive oil.

Here is the recipe for the olive salad: Nola's Olive Salad.

Next, you slather a huge amount of it on the top layer of the bread. Then take the bottom layer and smash it onto the top layer, so that the bottom layer can soak up some of that olivey-oiley-goodness as well (that's my nod to the Pioneer Woman Cooks style of prose, tee hee).

Now. Start layering the meats and the cheese. Here is the Nola Cuisine recipe for building the actual sandwich: Muffaletta Sandwich

Our first layer is Mortadella with pistachios.

Next comes a layer of Swiss cheese. (Imported Swiss, my husband was so lovely to point out to me when I got back from our LOUSY grocery store with the wrong kind.) Did it dampen his interest in eating the sandwich when it was done? Ahhh . . .Nooooooooo! The Serpio brothers use Swiss and Provolone. Most recipes call for Mozzarella and Provolone. The choice is yours!

Next a nice layering of Genoa.

Then a layer of Provolone.

Next comes my favorite, the Cappicola. Mine was the sweet Cappy. You could also use the hot one. But, that olive salad is PLENTY hot!

Now put the top half with the olive salad and the bottom half with the meats and cheeses together. This is a tricky bit, as the olive salad tends to spill on the counter.

The traditional way to cut it is into four wedges.

This makes for a nice big sandwich.

And a nice happy husband!