Muffuletta: The New Orleans Olive Salad Sandwich

Cut the Round Loaf into Four, Like a Pizza

A muffuletta is a sandwich, yet in the end it is cut into one portion per person, in four. In the cross-section of the round sesame loaf you see, in order, the saltiness of olives, the fat of salami, the sweetness of ham and the thickness of cheese. It is not a dish you warm just before eating; because you cut it cold, the filling settles and holds together in a single slice.

This dish did not cross over from Italy as a regional sandwich as it was. It was assembled in New Orleans' French Quarter as a lunch in shops that sold Sicilian-American ingredients and bread. The name comes from a round Sicilian-American loaf, but the sandwich itself grew up in New Orleans.

What you can hesitate over cooking this elsewhere is not so much whether every kind of meat and cheese is present. Drain the olive salad, don't make the round loaf too hard, and press it while cold. Keep these three, and you can come close to the texture of a muffuletta without leaning on a baguette or sandwich bread.

Rooted in Culture: A Lunch Sandwich of the French Quarter

According to 64 Parishes of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, New Orleans' muffuletta came out of the relationship between the Sicilian-American community that settled in the city from the late 19th to the early 20th century and the grocers around the French Market. Around it at the time were gathered pasta factories, Sicilian bakeries, importers of food and small grocers, where farmers, peddlers and workers on the docks bought their food.

The best-known origin is the story of Central Grocery, opened by Salvatore Lupo in 1906. A family account survives that Lupo suggested putting the fillings together in a round loaf to customers who had been buying bread, olives, cold cuts and cheese a little at a time at the shop. But the early records are supported by oral accounts and later memory, so rather than asserting it as the single founding story, it is more accurate to read it as "Central Grocery and the Lupo family have strongly carried the history of this dish."

The Sicilian "muffuletta" was originally not the name of a sandwich but of a round loaf with a soft inside and a light crust. Breads eaten on Sicilian feast days include ones topped with seeds such as sesame and fennel. In New Orleans, ham, salami, cheese and olive salad were layered into that bread, and the name of the bread passed to the name of the sandwich.

So thinking "collect all the authentic meats and you will get the taste of Italy" is slightly off. What is interesting about the muffuletta is that Sicilian bread and preserved foods were joined to the lunch conditions of New Orleans. You can eat it in a shop with no table, wrap it and carry it, and share one round loaf among several people. Those circumstances of life remain in the form of the dish itself.

Among sandwiches of the same city, the po'boy (in Japanese) puts fried shrimp or roast beef in a long French bread, and is eaten for the freshness of its sauce and vegetables. The muffuletta layers preserved foods in a round sesame loaf and is eaten after the saltiness and oil of the olives have soaked into the bread. Both are portable city lunches, but the center of their texture is different.

The Backbone of the Flavor Is the Olive Salad, Not the Bread

The muffuletta presented by New Orleans & Company, the city's tourism bureau, is built from a round sesame loaf with ham, salami, mortadella, provolone, mozzarella and olive dressing. Meanwhile the standard that Eater New Orleans described when Central Grocery reopened is a combination that includes provolone and Swiss cheese. That the cheese wavers between shops and households is not because the outline has collapsed, but because this is a dish in which whatever cold cuts were available were layered on the same bread and olive salad.

The recipe below is a home version that makes plenty of olive salad and uses provolone and Swiss cheese. If you replace the cheese with mozzarella, choose a low-moisture type. This is because thick fresh mozzarella gives off water when cut and tends to make the bread soggy.

Olive salad is not simply a filling. The oil soaks into the bread, vinegar and lemon cut the fat of the meat, and the chopped celery and pickles keep a bite inside the soft bread. If you chop the olives too fine they become a paste and only the oil runs out. Leave pieces of 5–7 mm and rest it in the refrigerator for several hours, and the saltiness spreads between the vegetables and herbs instead of staying sharp.

Ingredients (one 20 cm loaf, serves 4)

Rather than sandwiching one thick slice, layer thin slices a little at a time. When one serving's cross-section shows three meats and two cheeses, the balance of salt and fat doesn't collapse wherever you bite.

Buy the Olive Salad, or Chop It Yourself

At Central Grocery locally, besides the regular olive salad there are a hot type and multi-jar sets. Elsewhere it is hard to find the same jar nearby, so the first time it is easier to adjust the saltiness and heat by building it from pickled vegetables. But the aroma of chopped oregano remains when the dried leaves are allowed to blend into the oil.

Buying oregano for this is for someone who also plans to use it in lemon-and-oil dishes like Greek saganaki (in Japanese) and dakos (in Japanese), not only the muffuletta. If you will make it only once, the dried oregano you have is enough.

Choose Tools for Even Chopping by How Much You Make

You can chop olive salad with a knife. For one loaf's worth, cutting the olives to 5–7 mm on a cutting board and chopping the celery and pickles separately is enough. If you use a food processor, drain the ingredients first, then pulse in 1-second bursts a few times. Running it continuously separates water and oil from the olives and makes a paste too loose to spread on bread.

It is for people who make several muffulettas, or who routinely make minced pickles and onions in bulk. For just one loaf, a knife lets you stop while watching the size of the pieces. If you do shop for a small food processor, check the capacity, the blade specification and whether it can handle ingredients containing liquid.

Method: Rest the Salad, Layer It Cold

Make the olive salad first and rest it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. If you are serving it at dinner, prepare it at midday or the day before and the work on the day you cut the bread will be lighter. Open the meat and cheese after checking the flavor of the salad, which prevents adding too much salt.

Soggy, Salty, Falling Apart: Fix It from Where It Went Wrong

A muffuletta falls apart somewhere among the salad's moisture, the strength of the bread and the time under the weight. Rather than adding seasoning to the whole thing after it is done, it is easier to restore the flavor by finding the layer that caused it and reflecting that in the next loaf.

It is hard to lower the saltiness once the olive salad is complete, so not adding salt is the best insurance. Especially on days when you've changed the ham or cheese, taste the salad alone for a bite before putting in the meat. A salad that is a little salty alone may settle once the bread and vegetables are in, but if it is so strong that it lingers in the throat, dilute it with unsalted ingredients.

How the Layering Changes by Region and Shop

For the muffuletta, the lineup of fillings differs by household and shop. The recipe presented by New Orleans & Company lists mozzarella and provolone, and Eater New Orleans' article on Central Grocery's reopening presents a composition that includes Swiss cheese. It isn't that only one is correct; multiple forms remain as a result of the city's Italian grocers layering available meat and cheese on a round loaf.

There are differences in the olive salad too. There are shops that make the black olives deeper, shops that make the pepperoncini stronger, and shops that leave pickled cauliflower in large pieces, and Central Grocery's sales page also has regular and hot types. Since heat isn't a dish decided by the whole pot, a form in which you halve the pepperoncini and let each eater add hot sauce is easy to divide.

If you think of the Sicilian bread and the New Orleans sandwich separately, substitutes elsewhere also come naturally. Rather than switching the bread to sandwich bread, look for a round focaccia. Rather than increasing herbed olive oil, leave the pieces of olive and pickle. Rather than collecting every Italian ingredient, make a state in which sourness and saltiness cut the fat of the meat. You can see what you may change and which role you want to keep.

When you want to reduce the meat, even with three layers of 100g salami, 100g ham and 100g roasted mushrooms, the sourness of the olive salad can be kept. But that is a vegetable sandwich using the flavor axis of the muffuletta, not the local standard composition itself. Likewise, using a single cheese is possible, but keeping both the saltiness of provolone and the nutty aroma of Swiss means the cross-section doesn't turn monotonous even with less meat.

Serving, and Handling Leftovers

Cut one loaf into quarters and put them on a large platter, and you can share while showing the cross-section of the bread. Rather than plating each person's portion from the start, this lets each person choose the amount and sides, so it is a form that is easy to adjust even at a table with different tastes in sourness and heat. Rather than packing in lots of leafy greens, lightening the mouth with lettuce, pickles and tomato on a separate plate protects the bread's moisture.

Refrigerate the finished sandwich while still wrapped, and ideally finish it the same day. If you carry it to the next day, check the state of the bread and filling, and don't eat anything with an off smell, leakage or surface discoloration. If you keep olive salad separately, refrigerate it in a clean airtight container, and use up homemade salad within a guide of 2 days. Freezing changes the moisture of the pickles and the texture of the bread, so freezing the finished sandwich is not recommended.

If you want to make a warm sandwich, it moves toward a hot sandwich using the same fillings rather than a muffuletta. There is the fun of melting the cheese, but the sourness and oil of the olive salad tend to run into the bread. Finish one slice in the cold form first and warm just the leftover slice lightly in a pan, and you can compare the two ways of eating it.

Frequently Asked Questions

I don't have a round sesame loaf. Can I use sandwich bread?

You can, but the outline of the dish changes. Don't cut it into quarters; stack two slices to make small individual sandwiches. If you make one large round sandwich, look in the order of round focaccia, unsweetened sesame rolls, soft round loaves, and the bread will be less likely to push out the filling.

I can't find giardiniera.

Combining pickled cauliflower, carrot and celery can replace it. Use 100g of salty vegetable pickles and reduce the hot pepperoncini from 30g to half. Using sweet pickles or sweet relish pushes the olive salad toward a sweet side dish, so choose something with the sourness of vinegar.

How long should the olive salad marinate?

At least 4 hours, ideally overnight. It can be eaten after 30 minutes, but because the vinegar and oil haven't blended into the ingredients yet, the saltiness of the olives and the sourness of the vinegar are tasted separately. Always check the moisture once before putting it in the bread, and if liquid has collected at the bottom, drain it in a sieve.

May I warm a muffuletta?

You can eat it warmed, but the sandwich presented as Central Grocery's standard is cold. Cold, the oil and vinegar of the olive salad settle between the meat, cheese and bread. If you warm it, take just a quarter, use low heat for a short time, and stop before the cheese runs out, which is easier to handle.

I don't have mortadella.

You can replace it with ham and salami. Mortadella adds softness and fat to the meat layers, so add 50g ham and 50g salami, and if the salami is salty, reduce the capers in the olive salad to 15g. Avoid sandwiching raw bacon, since it is no substitute for cooked cold cuts.

Nutrition Information

These are approximations for one quarter. The figures change with the size of the bread, the salami and cheese products, and how much olive oil remains.

Sources