That sandwich pictured at the top of my blog? Why, it's only one of the most delicious sandwiches ever: the muffuletta from Central Grocery in New Orleans. Enough people have asked me about it that I figure it's time for a little 'letta lesson.
Invented by a Sicilian grocer in New Orleans around 1906, the muffuletta (pronounced moofalottah or moofalettah, depending on who you ask) contains an antipasto platter's worth of genoa salami, Italian ham, mortadella, swiss and/or provolone cheese, and a hefty scoop of olive salad, all served on a sesame-seeded roll also called a muffuletta and about the size of a Frisbee. Though no one is quite sure who invented it, Central Grocery in the French Quarter stakes the claim, and most people accept that.
A half sandwich will handily feed two people; my family of four used to order a whole one to eat on the Moonwalk by the Mississippi River. It's one of my favorite sandwiches ever and definitely one of my most sentimental. The most magical thing about a muffuletta is that, unlike most sandwiches, it actually improves over time.
The olive salad — a medley of olives, carrots, garlic, cauliflower, and other assorted ingredients — turns the somewhat bland bread into a decadence more like focaccia, and the flavors meld perfectly with the creamy cheese and sharp cold cuts. The Central Grocery understands this and does you the pleasure of making them in advance so they're all wrapped up and ready to go when you order. Here's the one that my boyfriend Andrew and I shared during my 30th bday trip to NOLA.
Though I have seen muffulettas on menus outside New Orleans, most of the ones I've found (especially outside the South) aren't really muffulettas at all but more just like Italian meat sandwiches, sometimes with olives. The olive salad is really key. Also, many New Orleans restaurants have started serving hot muffulettas, which are good but, in my opinion, a totally different sandwich. So I'll save that for another post.
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