Omnivore - Get in Ma Mouth: Muffuletta Edition

• Brad Kaplan

Pssst. I got a secret. You don't need to go to New Orleans to get a good muffuletta. Sure, standing in line at Central Grocery in the French Quarter has its charms, as does diverting your airport taxi to make a pit stop at Nor-Joe Import Company, but you can actually make an astoundingly good rendition of this New Orleans classic at home with ease. You'll just need to visit a few places around town for the right ingredients, assemble the sandwich, and then... let it sit so the flavors have time to come together. Your mind may tell you to eat it immediately, but your mouth will thank you for waiting.

We recently hosted a New Orleans-themed party, so whipped up a batch of muffulettas to feed thirty or so people. We cut each large sandwich - about a foot in diameter - into eight slices, so just four of them easily fed the crowd (in addition to the jambalaya, and red beans and rice, and shrimp remoulade, and bourbon bread pudding...).

The ingredients are simple. First, you have to start with a muffuletta loaf - a flattish, round loaf of not-quite-crusty bread, usually topped with hundreds and hundreds of sesame seeds. H&F Bread Co. makes a very nice version, and you can also find them at Star Provisions - just call ahead to make sure they're available when you want them. Accept no substitutes (foccacia? no. just no.).

? ? ?

• Brad Kaplan

Next, there's another defining ingredient - the olive salad. You can get fancy and make the stuff yourself, chopping up olives and celery and cauliflower and carrots and peppers, or just head down to your local Publix or Kroger to pick up a jar, usually to be found near the pickles. I actually found mine at Costco, from a brand called That Pickle Guy. Good stuff. Two 24oz jars is just right to make four large muffuletta sandwiches, so plan accordingly.

Then there's the meat and cheese. Most recipes call for a combination of three or four thinly sliced meats, like smoked ham, Genoa salami, mortadella, and capicola, plus one or two types of thinly sliced cheese, typically provolone, and sometimes Swiss. You can find these at a good deli counter, and, of course, the better the quality of the meats, the better your sandwich will be.

With ingredients in hand, just slice your loaf in half horizontally, layer on a thick spread of olive salad, then stack up layers of the cheese and meats to your heart's content. A light spread of the oil from the olive salad on the top bun helps sandwich in the flavor. And then comes the tricky part - letting the muffuletta sit. Believe me, your enjoyment will increase proportionately with the amount of time left sitting (though I am sure there is some point of diminishing returns). I managed to wait four hours before my first bite, letting the sandwich sit in the plastic bag that the loaf came in, at room temperature, until I could wait no more and the party had begun.

• Brad Kaplan
• Aged, and melted, to perfection

But then, there were leftovers. Sitting in the fridge, I somehow didn't touch the stuff for three days (OK, there was leftover jambalaya, and red beans and rice, and bourbon bread pudding in the fridge, too, so I had fair reason to pass over the muffuletta). But after those three days, I gave the leftover slice a quick run in the oven, just to the point where the olive-soaked bread was crisp around the edges, the cheese melting over the meat, but the Genoa and ham and mortadella maintained a bit of their cool in the middle. The result was heavenly. Far better than the four-hour version I had tasted days before.

I'd love to test the outer bounds of muffuletta aging - five days? a week? a month? a year? - but, alas, my leftovers are over. I'll have to make another, and see how long it lasts.

"Recipe" for Muffuletta Sandwich

Ingredients

1 muffuletta loaf
12 ounces olive salad
1/2 pound smoked ham, thinly sliced
1/2 pound Genoa salami, thinly sliced
1/4 pound mortadella, thinly sliced
1/2 pound provolone cheese
1/2 pound Swiss cheese

Method

Cut the loaf in half, crosswise, and generously cover the bottom half with olive salad. Drizzle the top half of the loaf with the oil from the olive salad. Pile on a layer of cheese, layers of the meats, and another layer of cheese on top. Close it up and let it sit!

Room temperature is great for eating, but if you want to test the limits of sandwich aging, throw it in the fridge and reheat in the oven when you're ready.