New Orleans Muffaletta Sandwich
The famous New Orleans muffaletta sandwich is made with a soft sesame bread, an olive salad spread, and lots of Italian cold cuts and cheese.
Ingredients
Muffaletta Bread:
- 1 cup water, warmed
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 packet yeast, 2 ¼ teaspoons, instant or active dry
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups bread flour, see note
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
Olive Salad:
- 1 cup Castelvetrano olives
- 1 cup Italian giardiniera
- ½ cup Kalamata olives
- ½ cup pepperoncini, stems removed, optional
- ½ cup roasted red peppers, jarred version, optional
- 1 tablespoon capers, optional
- 1 tablespoon pimiento, optional
- 3 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
- 1 small shallot, finely diced, about 2-3 tablespoons
- ¾ teaspoon granulated garlic, or 3-4 cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 tablespoon fresh
- ½ teaspoon dried basil, or 1 ½ teaspoons fresh
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme, or ¾ teaspoon fresh
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Muffaletta Sandwich:
- One 10-12-inch muffaletta bread loaf
- 1-2 cups olive salad, to taste
- Extra-virgin olive oil, to taste, for brushing onto bread
- ½ pound sliced genoa salami, see note
- ½ pound sliced capicola
- ½ pound sliced mortadella
- ¼ - ½ pound sliced mozzarella or Swiss cheese
- ¼ - ½ pound sliced provolone cheese, see note
Directions
Muffuletta Bread:
- In a glass measuring cup, warm 1 cup of water to roughly 95°-105°F or 35°-40°C. Add 1 packet of instant or active dry yeast and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and let it proof for about 10 minutes.
- Add the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attached. Add the combined 1 cup all-purpose flour and 2 cups of bread flour in increments to the bowl, mixing until a loose dough forms. Finally, add 2 teaspoons kosher salt while mixing, and then 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.
- Set the speed on 2 and let the dough knead for about 8 minutes, until it doesn’t stick to the bowl and is no longer tacky. Place it in a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.
- Once doubled, punch down and move to a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet. Shape into a flattened circle about 10-inches wide and cover with about 2 tablespoons of white sesame seeds. Cover again and let rise a second time for 45-60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. After about 5 minutes, more to a cooling rack. Once cooled you can slice in half horizontally and use it right away or store it at room temperature for 1-2 days.
Italian Olive Salad:
- Start by finely dicing 1 small shallot, mincing 3-4 garlic cloves (if using) or ¾ teaspoon granulated garlic, and finely chopping any fresh herbs you’re using (1 tablespoon oregano, 1 ½ teaspoons basil, and ¾ teaspoon thyme). Use 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, but can use 1 teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon dried basil, and ¼ dried thyme instead of fresh. Set these aside for now.
- In a food processor, add 1 cup Castelvetrano olives, 1 cup Italian giardiniera, ½ cup Kalamata olives, ½ cup pepperoncini (stems removed), ½ cup roasted red peppers, 1 tablespoon capers, 1 tablespoon pimientos, and 3 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar. Pulse a few times, remove top and scrape the bottom and sides, then pulse again a few times. The ingredients should look like roughly diced vegetables, but don’t blend them into a paste.
- Transfer the mixture to a large, non-reactive bowl. Now add the reserved shallot, garlic, herbs, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Mix everything thoroughly and finally add ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil and mix again.
- Transfer to a canning jar(s) and refrigerate overnight before using.
Muffuletta Sandwich:
- Once everything is ready to go, start by slicing the muffuletta bread in half horizontally and separate the top and bottom. Brush or drizzle the cut sides of the bread with extra-virgin olive oil (roughly 2-4 tablespoons).
- Add as much or as little olive salad as you prefer to the bottom, top, or both sides of the bread. Try to drain some of the liquid before spreading the olive salad on the bread.
- Now layer on the meats and cheeses. This can vary from person to person, so you could do cheese on bottom, on top, both, or in-between. The meat can be layered together below the cheese, or mixed in with the cheese, totally up to you. I think I had mine layered as ½ pound sliced genoa salami, ½ pound sliced capicola, ¼ - ½ pound sliced Swiss or mozzarella cheeses, ½ pound sliced mortadella, then ¼ - ½ pound sliced provolone cheese.
- From here you can slice into large quarters, slightly smaller 8-piece wedges, or even smaller wedges if served as an appetizer and serve immediately. However, for the best flavor I recommend wrapping the whole thing in plastic wrap and refrigerating overnight, or at least 3-4 hours. This lets the olive oil and olive salad soak into the bread and gives time for all the flavors to meld together.
- You can serve this at room temperature or cold once ready. Personally, I like to toast it in a 350°F oven for 8-12 minutes, longer if needed. I like it slightly warmed and the cheese melted, but don’t toast so long that the crust becomes hard and crumbly. Keep the crust a bit soft still.
Notes
1) Bread & Olives – As mentioned before, if you want/need to make these yourself, I ran through the ingredients and instructions quickly here. For more in-depth information and process photos, as well as two sizes for the bread, see my posts for homemade muffuletta bread and olive salad.
2) Flour – I prefer the mixture of AP and bread flour here for just the right texture and chew. If you only keep all-purpose on hand usually and don’t want to purchase bread flour, that’s fine. It won’t have quite the same chew, but you can just use all-purpose if needed.
3) Optional Olive Salad Ingredients – Most giardiniera mixes include red pepper, and pepperoncini but I like the flavor, so I like to add more to my olive salad. Capers aren’t required either, but I like to add some for their slightly different flavor from the olives used here. Pimentos I add because the Italian olives used here typically come pitted but not stuffed with pimiento like Spanish queen olives people are familiar with. Add those if you feel you’d miss their flavor. Finally, I like the mild but punchy flavor from shallots here, but feel free to use any regular onion instead.
4) Olives – I prefer the mix of Castelvetrano and Kalamata olives here. If you’d like, you can use any mix of green and black olives that you like though. Spanish queen olives stuffed with pimento are a popular choice as well.
5) Meats Options – Typically muffuletta sandwiches use a combination of Italian cold cuts. The original recipe usually mentions mortadella, genoa salami, and deli ham (or capicola). I suggest picking 2-3 of these options: mortadella, genoa salami, capicola, deli ham, pepperoni, soppressata, hard salami, or prosciutto.
6) Cheese Options – The traditional cheese here is usually sliced provolone. I normally like a combination of both provolone and either Swiss or mozzarella. As above, choose 1-2 of these options (one should be provolone): provolone, smoked provolone, mozzarella, smoked mozzarella, Swiss, Emental, gouda, or Monterey Jack.
7) Nutritional Information – I chose to skip the nutritional value for this recipe because there are way too many variables to account for. Different brands for ingredients, optional ingredient choices, how much olive oil, olive salad, meat, and cheese amounts and choices you make… too much to guestimate here. Including how you serve it between large quarters, smaller 8ths, 12-16 small appetizer wedges, etc. A ballpark figure for a large quarter of the sandwich is around 1,500 calories, but even that could be off anywhere from a 1200-1800 calorie range.
8) Cooking Time – The prep and cooking time listed above is only for the muffaletta sandwich. The bread takes roughly 3 hours between making the dough, 2 rises, and bake time. The olive salad takes about 15 minutes to toss together, but an overnight marinading time. Once the sandwich is made, I also recommend refrigerating overnight. Because of this, the total time is basically 48 hours if you make the olive salad a day in advance, the bread the day of, then make the sandwich and refrigerate overnight again.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
