Northern Neck Muffuletta

In honor of the upcoming Mardi Graz, I wanted to make one of my favorite sandwiches, the Muffuletta. I’m actually going to call this a Northern Neck Muffuletta, as these are the ingredients I could cobble together from Food Lion.

First off, yes, I know what a REAL muffuletta is. But I’m pleased with these results. And actually, I have fond memories of getting a toasty warm muffuletta from a local Italian bakery in Port Canaveral and enjoying it in the cockpit of the Cool Change. And THEY served it on a crusty Italian loaf.

The classic would be a muffuletta loaf, cut in half with the below ingredients (more or less, I used bologna because mortadella won’t be found at the Food Lion). This would result in a massive sandwich that would be quartered to serve 4 people.

This is build on Food Lion’s “Rustic Sandwich Buns” which have a nice dense structure that you want/need. And they also stock Mezzetta’s Italian Olive Salad, which is actually designed to perfectly mimic the olive salad you would traditionally make. So HUGE time and cost savings.

This sandwich is all about construction, there is no cooking. Hollow out your bread a bit to make room for the olive salad. Add a couple tablespoon into the bottom. Feel free to be a little generous with the olive oil juice…that’s part of the fun.

Then layer…
Salami
Prosciutto
Sopressa
Thin sliced, deli Wunderbar German bologna.
Sprinkle on some Italian seasoning
Provalone Cheese
Swiss Cheese

Then scoop on a couple more tablespoons of the olive salad and top with the bun.

Wrap this all up in some plastic wrap and put a weight on the top. Let it rest for at least an hour. Or put it in the fridge overnight.

Purists would eat this cold. But my favorite is warmed, I think it brings the flavors together better. So I put mine in the air fryer at 400° for 6 minutes and let it rest for 5 minutes.

The result is an in-authentic, but still great muffuletta, a Italian Sandwich invented to New Orleans and is a great example of the many cultures that added to the wonderful diversity of that city.

I served mine with a side salad to try to pretend to balance out all the processed meat.