December 31, 2021 - 3:15am
Muffuletta Sandwich
Hello, bread club members and guests. Today (New Years' Eve 2022) I will endeavor a two-part project.
First, I shall bake a semolina Italian bread, typical of what can be found on the Island of Sicily. The inspiration for this bake comes from Inumeridieri's recent bake of Mafalda bread.
Secondly, I will use the Mafalda bread to recreate the muffuletta sandwich. A New Orleans classic created by Sicilian Italian emigrants. Now let us dust off the old blog page, and put up some new window dressing! Thanks for reading I hope you will drop by to check out the end result soon!
The scaled dough
The preshape
The final Shaping
Proofed
Il serpente (The Snake)
Gli occhi di Santa Lucia (The Eyes of Saint Lucy)
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Hi, Danny.
I am about to head out to Citronella (Gourmet shop) to pick up the charcuterie and look for a suitable olive salad. Please stand by for the conclusion.
Those look so great will, can’t wait for the finale.
Very good, nice work.
The Muffuletta is pressed,under a cast iron saucepan for a quick thirty minutes to meld the flavors.
Happy New Year my friends!
My wish for us all is for 2022 to go as well as this 2021 farewell bake!
Looks delicious and a great way to say goodbye to 2021 Will.
Happy New Year
Benny
Beautiful bread. Love those puffy doughs and the final shaping.
The sandwich process... I found a little traumatizing. The poor bread gets gutted and crushed.
This pictorial has quite the dramatic arc.
Thank you so much for your kind words. Let me try to clarify a couple of points to put you at ease. First of all none of the beeba (what my mom called the crumb) went to waste. The plan was to save it for homemade bread crumbs. However, the small amount of pillowy soft goodness went straight from hand to mouth. Regarding the pressing, this actually enhances the whole experience. The pressing distributes the flavors throughout, and compacts the overstuffed goodness so every bite is like reaching nirvana! Smile... Now I am off
on a quest to find the most ancient of bread formulas. You know, the one mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel. Happy New Year!
Did the olive oil from the olive salad run down your arms to you elbows and drip onto your lap? Did your chin shine with the oil? I’ve eaten my fair share of Central Grocery muffulettas in the 60’s and 70’s. I grew up in NOLA and my husband was friends with and went to school at Cor Jesu with the son’s who carried on the business after their Dad retired.
They no longer make even a poor imitation of the original. Time has taken its toll and the Boars Head meats are awful as well as the bread and the olive salad is primarily canola oil ☹️🤬 . The price has risen through the roof.
Your sandwich looks delicious. I bookmarked that bread. So glad you posted this beauty! c
I was waiting on Danno to get the down-low on what is in the signature spread! Now I can ask you too. Truth be told It needed a drizzle of olive oil. That being said I was pretty happy with my homemade mix. The truffled mushrooms were excellent and will be part of my spread mix going forward even if it is not quite authentic. Looking at what I put together is there anything you would add delete? Thanks for your input.
you need mozzarella as well as the provolone. Also the olive salad is too small pieces, they crush the olives not chop. It's pimiento stuffed green olives and Kalamata and then giardinera. All in olive oil. You have to really soak it with the olive oil to get the full effect :) You see folks say they buy one to take on the plane with them...haha...good luck with that if you have an original muffuletta !! It's basically swimming in olive oil. No mushrooms !! Sorry...you can have them on the side LOL !! And the fragrance is over the top...not probably appreciated by the folks sitting around you on the plane unless you are gonna share ....cher ...
Brings back great memories !! c
I thought it would be easy to find marinated Italian-style, mixed vegetables. (giardiniera) Sadly I was wrong and had to improvise. Thanks for the tip on the proper texture! I think the marinated artichokes & red peppers went along well with the olives. I will keep experimenting. For now, the mushroom & truffle mix stays!
Taste and preferences are quite different from one person to another. Caroline likes the larger pieces of crushed olives and I find that way too pungent. Central Grocery is the standard for Mufulettas. I tried to like their olive salad , but it was way too chunky for me. My choice is Boscoli Olive Salad, which has smaller pieces of everything. It is great on pasta, pizza, and many other things that could use a super bump in flavor. BTW - all olive salad is pungent to varying degrees.
Side Note -
Some time ago you mention THESE POLISH MUSTARDS , which I bought from Amazon. You might want to give Zatarain’s Creole Mustard a try.
Thanks for your input. I will source both the olive salad and the mustard recommendations. Thanks for the links! This Sicilian bread was an easy one-day bake, that helped with my breadmaking addiction/time constraint issues.
Where would we be without innovation??!! Keep your additions but for heaven’s sake get out that oil and douse your sandwich!! Remember it needs to drip off of the forearms! 😂😳
The Boscoli has Canola oil listed first. I had to throw it out due to that flavor and too much vinegar flavor as well. The product from Central grocery lists Soy oil with the Olive oil. It’s a better consistency as well as flavor to our taste buds. No overpowering vinegar . As far as being chunky the Central Grocery brand can be chopped finer if that’s preferred. Just an fyi. I agree we all taste different!😂
First, before I share what I feel is a very elegant solution to the commercial jarred offerings conundrum, let me share this.
"Victoria packing" This band was and still is made within walking distance of my Brooklyn home. Look them up. Now regarding the ready-made spreads. I already ordered a15oz. jar of Dans suggested brand. Truth be told I am not pleased with the oil used in either suggested option. After a taste test, I am going to drain between 1/2 and 3/4 of the marinate and replace it with Sicilian EVOO! I will also add some extras. I.e: Marinated artichoke, roasted red peppers, homemade candied jalapeno, and anchovy. Smile, while never perfect it is always nice to have a ready-to-go jarred solution. After all the bread is the main player! Is that correct? IDK, Happy New Year!
Note on Victoria Packing. It looks to me like the split or sold part of the company. It seems Victoria is now limited to mostly pasta sauces (very good). The other offings are now branded B&G.