A little bit of New Orleans in New York Harbor

This past weekend I went out to Governors Island with some friends of mine; it was really fun, thanks for asking. Since I’m usually designated the “food guy,” it fell to me to make or bring something to eat. Seeing as I, ya’know, know how to cook, I thought it would’ve been a cop-out if I showed up with a Cold Cut Combo and a Bag of Funyuns. It took me about 5 seconds to come up with the sandwich I was going to make: the Muffelatta. I first "discovered" the Muffelatta about a year ago, while researching regional sandwiches for a Labor Day party. Shortly thereafter, I made my first foray into muffelatta territory and even made Muffelatta's for a Super Bowl party...they were a big hit!
A muffelatta is both the name of a type of Sicilian bread and a pretty damn tasty sandwich. The muffelatta loaf is a fairly large, flat, rounded loaf of bread that’s about 10-to-12-inches across and apparently tastes like focaccia. Although I wouldn’t actually know considering I’ve never been to New Orleans, and it’s virtually impossible to find the real McCoy in New York City.
A muffelatta sandwich is made using the aforementioned loaf, which is cut in half and then layered with alternating slices of cappicola, sopressata, mortadella, and then Emmentaler and Provolone cheeses. The whole sandwich is brought together by an olive salad, which is a combination of chopped olives, carrots, and peppers and then pressed overnight. Up till now I’ve had to make due with cheap imitations or quickly thrown together sandwiches made at home. This time I was determined to do it right. Saturday night I bought a loaf of bread that was the closest approximation of a Muffelatta loaf I could find, all the meats, cheeses, peppers and carrots; the olives I had at home. I did make one change, substituting prosciutto for mortadella; but in my opinion the difference in taste is negligible. Once home, I made the olive salad and tossed it with both an herb and a chili infused oil I had made some months before. Again, I’ve never had the original, but if I do say so myself the one I made was one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve had in a while.

Elliott’s Muffelatta


1 Large Circular loaf of sturdy bread
½ Pint – assorted olives (mostly green), pits removed & rough chopped
¼ Cup – shredded & chopped carrots
¼ Cup – mixed (sweet & hot) peppers, stems removed
¼ Pound – Cappicola, thinly sliced
¼ Pound – Sopressata, thinly sliced
¼ Pound – Prosciutto, thinly sliced
¼ Pound – Emmentaler Cheese, thinly sliced
¼ Pound – Provoline Cheese, thinly sliced
Olive Oil for drizzling & mixing
Salt & Pepper, to taste


First make the Olive Salad:
Allow olives to come to room temperature, then press your thumb into the center of each olive; this should easily pit the olive. Roughly chop the olives, then combine with the carrots and peppers and chop once again. Place salad in a bowl and season with salt, pepper and olive oil (you can use an infused oil if you have one). Mix the salad together well, then set aside.

Then start the sandwich:
Cut the loaf in half and scoop out some of the bread from the inside of the top half, forming a well (this is where most of the Olive Salad is going to go). Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the bottom half of the loaf and begin to place the meats and cheeses in alternating layers, also on the bottom half of the loaf. When you have finished layering the meats and cheeses, spoon the olive salad into the well in the top half of loaf. Then, carefully holding one half of the sandwich in each hand, place the two halves together and immediately press down on the top half of the sandwich. Wrap the muffelatta in plastic wrap, place on a plate and cover with a baking sheet or plate and weight down, then place in the refrigerator at least overnight.
Remove from the refrigerator, slice and enjoy.