Muffuletta — The Pressed New Orleans Picnic Sandwich

Ingredients

• 200g green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 100g black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 200g giardiniera (Italian pickled vegetables), drained and chopped
• 2 tbsp capers, drained
• 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• black pepper
• small handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 round Italian-style loaf, around 24cm (sesame-topped if you can find one)
• 100g Italian salami, thinly sliced
• 100g mortadella, thinly sliced
• 100g good cooked ham, thinly sliced
• 100g provolone, thinly sliced
• 100g mozzarella (block, not fresh ball), thinly sliced

Method

1. Make the olive salad first — it needs at least 30 minutes for the flavours to marry, and ideally the night before. Combine the green olives, black olives, giardiniera, capers, grated garlic, oregano, chilli flakes, olive oil, red wine vinegar, a good crack of black pepper and the parsley in a bowl. The garlic goes in raw and finely grated so it bleeds into the oil rather than catching anywhere — no heat means no risk of it turning bitter, but keep it fine so no one bites a raw chunk.
2. Stir well and taste. It should be punchy, salty, sharp, with a slick of oil pooling at the bottom. Adjust now — a splash more red wine vinegar if it needs lift, more black pepper if it's flat. The olives and capers carry most of the salt, so taste before you reach for any more. That pooled oil is not a mistake; it's what soaks into the bread and makes a muffuletta a muffuletta.
3. Slice the loaf in half horizontally through its equator. Now the controversial bit: pull out a little of the soft crumb from both halves, leaving a roughly 1cm shell. This makes room for the filling without the sandwich becoming impossibly tall, and stops the bread going gluey under pressure.
4. Spoon half the olive salad onto the bottom half of the loaf, including plenty of the oil, and spread it right to the edges. Spoon the other half onto the underside of the top loaf and spread it the same way. Olive salad on BOTH halves is non-negotiable — single-sided dressing means dry bread on top, and dry bread is what separates a sad sandwich from a muffuletta.
5. On the bottom half, layer in this order: salami, then provolone, then mortadella, then mozzarella, then ham. Keep the layers flat and even — uneven layers slice messily and spill at the picnic. Taste a sliver of the stack with a spoonful of olive salad before you close it; if the meats read mild, scatter another pinch of black pepper across the cheese. Season once more now, because once it's wrapped, you're committed.
6. Close the sandwich with the top half, olive-salad-side down. Press down firmly with your palms to settle everything, then wrap the whole loaf tightly in two layers of foil, twisting the edges to seal. The foil holds the sandwich together while the pressing happens and stops the oil leaking onto your counter.
7. Now press it. Set the wrapped loaf on a board or large plate, lay another board or plate on top, and weight it down with something heavy — a couple of hardback books, a cast-iron pan, two big tins of tomatoes. Leave at room temperature for 2 hours minimum. The press is the technique: it compacts the layers so the sandwich slices cleanly, and drives the olive oil and salad juices into the crumb so every bite is seasoned through. A muffuletta that hasn't been pressed is just a tall sandwich.
8. Keep it wrapped for transport. At the picnic, unwrap, set on a board, and slice through the whole loaf into 8 wedges with a serrated knife — sawing gently rather than pressing down so you don't squash the layers out the sides. Set the wedges on the board with the jar of extra giardiniera open alongside, the cherry tomatoes tipped into a bowl, the crisps torn open, and the cold lager or chilled red poured. Coffee in the flask for the drive home.