Muffuletta: The Pressed New Orleans Picnic Sandwich

• 200 ggreen olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 100 gblack olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 200 ggiardiniera (Italian pickled vegetables), drained and chopped
• 2 tbspcapers, drained
• 2garlic cloves, finely grated
• 1 tbspdried oregano
• 1 tspchilli flakes
• 4 tbspextra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbspred wine vinegar
• black pepper
• 15 gflat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 600 ground Italian-style white loaf, around 24 cm (sesame-topped if available)
• 100 gItalian salami, thinly sliced
• 100 gmortadella, thinly sliced
• 100 ggood cooked ham, thinly sliced
• 100 gprovolone, thinly sliced
• 100 gmozzarella (block, not fresh ball), thinly sliced
• Fine salt

Method

1. 1Make 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.
2. 2Stir well and taste. It should be punchy, salty, sharp, with a slick of oil pooling at the bottom. Adjust the black pepper to taste. 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. 3Slice 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. 4Spoon 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 important; single-sided dressing means dry bread on top, and dry bread is what separates a sad sandwich from a muffuletta.
5. 5On 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. 6Close 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. 7Now 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. Press in the fridge for at least 2 hours. 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. 8Keep it chilled and wrapped for transport in a cool bag with ice packs. 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. Arrange the wedges on a board and serve while the loaf is still compact and juicy. Coffee in the flask for the drive home.

Per serving

kcal

331

protein

14.9g

fibre

2.6g

carbs

9.2g

fat

26.7g