Trailing The Wild Muffuletta

J and I split a muffuletta from The Central Grocery when we were in New Orleans and it was so good that she decided to try making them at home. I had the impression that the olive salad wasn't much more than olives and oil with a little seasoning so I thought that part would be easy. But the results of my googling for a recipe say different. Depending on the source carrots, cauliflower, capers, cocktail onions and olives, oddly enough, are just a few of the things that are either in or out of the mix. And the site with the claim to the original doesn't seem at all like what we had. So while making it may be easy finding the correct recipe has turned out to be difficult.

Anyway we chose a the following recipe and we've got a batch of it sitting in the fridge for an overnight stay. We're going to try it tomorrow, pictures and an update to follow.

Olive oil salad
¼ cup roasted red pepper sliced
¼ cup red onion sliced
¾ cup finely chopped celery, with leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 teaspoons Oregano
2 cloves garlic minced
½ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon tabasco sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¾ cup black brine cured olives - kalamatas
½ cup green olives


1 Make the Giardiniera - Italian pickled vegetables - by adding everything but olives. Add those at the end.
2 Stir and marinate overnight.
3 Use a flat Italian roll preferably hardened or baked so that the olive oil will not melt it.
4 Build sandwich of meat, cheese and olive oil salad.