Muffuletta Sandwich

We are back from our trip to Seattle, and I have a ton of blog updating to do!! I can't remember if I had mentioned we were going up there for the LSU vs. UW football game. The husband went to LSU and is a huge Tigers fan. The game wasn't quite the blowout I expected it to be, but it was still fun. We're still a bit hoarse from all the cheering we did.

Prior to the game we had a tailgating party at my bro's house with some of his friends, my friend Jess, my mom, the husband, and my boys. We had quite a feast!! I made Aunt Holly's Gumbo, this muffuletta sandwich, and a shrimp & crab dip. My brother's friend Siri grilled salmon and made an awesome salad with mixed greens, heirloom tomatoes, chives, blue cheese, and a dressing that was kind of like a green goddess. Yum!!! Oh, and my bro had bought three dozen raw oysters. I'm telling you, it was a feast like none other!

The best muffuletta sandwiches are from Central Grocery in New Orleans, but they don't give out the recipe (trust me, I did A LOT of Googling to try and find it). I found this recipe on RecipeZaar.com and thought it sounded good and pretty similar to Central Grocery's. Actually the cookbook this is from is one I'm holding hostage from the library.

Muffuletta
Recipe #373115

Olive Salad
1 cup green olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
1 cup black olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 ounces jarred roasted red peppers (drained and chopped fine, 1/2 cup)
4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (drained and chopped, 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 garlic clove, minced

Sandwich
1 large round Italian bread (or French bread)
8 ounces thinly sliced mortadella
8 ounces thinly sliced provolone cheese
8 ounces thinly sliced hard salami

For the olive salad, mix everything together. Cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.

To make the sandwich: Drain olive salad, saving the marinade. Cut the bread in half horizontally and remove most of the soft interior. Brush both inside pieces of the bread with the reserved marinade.

Place half of the olive salad in the bottom half of the hollowed-out bread. Top it with the cold cuts. Put on the rest of the olive salad. Put top half of bread on top of it all.

Wrap in plastic wrap. Put it between two dinner plates. (It might work best to turn the top plate upside down, depending on if the plates have any curvature to them or not.) Put 2 or 3 heavy cans on top of it to work as weights. (Mufuletta is pressed-down sandwich). Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.

To serve, unwrap and cut into wedges.

*****

I was having a hard time finding mortadella so resorted to looking for spicy bologna instead, but I ended up finding it at a fancy schmancy grocery store in the deli. I tell you, I would go broke grocery shopping if I lived in Seattle! There are so many nice grocery stores there. I also added ham to mine because I could have sworn that the muffs at Central Grocery had ham as well. This was a FANTASTIC sandwich! The husband said it was as close as he'd ever had to Central Grocery's, so I took that as a huge compliment! I ended up using a loaf of Italian bread because I couldn't find rounds anywhere. And really it could have been pressed down for longer (and with something heavier, but it was slim pickings for things at my brother's), but it was pretty freakin' awesome. I'm guessing the husband will be requesting it every now and then to get his muff fix!

Sigh...I have pics to add to this post, but they keep erroring out. What a pain! I'll post them later.