The Muffuletta Recipe
This pic is of the Central Grocery's Muffuletta. The best! The model that all other Muffulettas should try to emulate! There are a lot of bad ones in the city. The one at the Napoleon House isn't bad. It's a heated version with a more finely chopped olive salad. They also use Pastrami on their version, I'm not crazy about that. It's not bad, but like all others, It's no Central Grocery. Ask my friend Tom how great this sandwich is! He would have missed Lundi Gras one year because of a hangover if it wasn't for CG's Muff. I make a pretty good Muffuletta, I'm not going to say it's as good as CG's, but it's pretty darned good. The quality bread is important, you need about a 10 inch round loaf with a good coarse texture, nice crust (not too hard) and sesame seeds. Here is my recipe:
My Muffuletta
1 10" round loaf Italian bread with Sesame seeds
1 Recipe Olive Salad
1/4 lb Genoa Salami (Oldani is the best, and I'm relatively certain it's what CG uses)
1/4 lb Hot Capicola (this is my spin, you can use regular Ham.)
1/4 lb Mortadella (I use San Danielle)
1/4 lb Mozzarella
1/4 lb Provolone
Assembly:
Cut the bread in half length wise.
Brush both sides with the oil from your 1 week old olive salad, go a little heavier on the bottom.
Layer half of the Oldani on the bottom half of bread. Then the Mortadella. Then the Mozzarella, then the Capicola, Provolone, and the remainder of Oldani. Top this with the olive salad. Put the lid on and press it down without smashing the bread. Quarter it. You've just created pure heaven.
Serves: 4 light eaters, 2 hungry hangovers or one bad to the bone eating machine!
Check out The Muffuletta Incident
posted by Danno | 3/22/2005 08:59:00 AM
8 Comments:
What a blessing to find your site! Moved after Katrina and I have been craving Beignets. Looking forward to trying your recipes!!
Gotta give a plug to the muffs at NorJoe's in Old Metairie. It is a strong challenger to CG's.
Great blog. I checked it out last week when i was researching The Muff.
Check out my monster Muff at my blog.
In hindsight i think i went a bit too far, 1 too many cheese's,
http://tastemeyouwillsee.blogspot.com/
I Look forward to your feedback,,I think I got the history of this great sandwich across in my post.
Gotta give a plug to the muffs at NorJoe's in Old Metairie
Thats a good recipe. The only thing I would change is after you make the muff. you place it on a grill with a weight on it. Crisp up both sides and heat until its heated through. A microwave oven does not work for this. You need a grill or sandwich press. A cast iron grill with something heavy on top of the sandwich works best. Then slice and serve.
I must tell you, leaving all the white bread in the top half of the Muffaletta may be traditional (Central Grocery) but it's an outdated idea. The Muffaletta has 4 main ingredients, bread, olive salad, meats and cheeses. The traditional recipe says light oil from the oilve salas spread on the top half of the loaf. That translates to too much bread and too little oil. Here is the smarter way to make a muff. The bottom half of the loaf gets the olive salad and it's delicious oil. It's lijke bread dipped in salad dressing Yummmm! The olive salad, the meats and the cheeses speak for themselves. Now for the smarter twist. The top of the loaf needs white bread to be scrapped out so the top element, now quit rolling your eyes and open your mind, is lightly oiled matching the thinner white bread content. That means the top of the loaf is there to provide, not white bread volumne, but crunch. The bite experience is CRUNCH, MEATS, CHEESES, OLIVE SALAD, BOTTOM LOAF DRENCHED IN THE OLIVE SALAD OIL!!!!!!! That is the contemporary Muffaeatta. Try it!!!!! You won't go back to all that extra bread.
I have been using your recipe to make "mini muffs" for holiday parties since last Thanksgiving. They are always a huge hit and I put the leftover olive salad on EVERYTHING. It's like the savory Nutella. Just wanted to say thanks!
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