Almost Central Grocery Muffuletta Recipes

Steps:

• Combine the olives, capers, anchovies, olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, and oregano in a bowl.
• Cover and chill for 2 to 4 hours.
• To assemble the sandwich, split the loaf of bread in half horizontally.
• Take some of the soft insides out of each side.
• Brush the inside of the top and bottom shells with excess marinade from the bottom of the olive salad bowl.
• Stir the relish to blend and then spoon half onto the bottom round of bread.
• Arrange the mortadella slices over the olive salad.
• Then layer the provolone and salami.
• Mound the remaining olive salad over that and cover with the top shell.
• Wrap the sandwich tightly with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
• Cut the sandwich into wedges to serve.

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, combine celery, giardiniera, parsley, olives, olive oil, black pepper, and garlic. Set aside.
• Remove a 1" layer of soft center of bread from both halves to make room for the filling. On bottom half of bread, spread half of the olive mixture; top with the ham, cheese, salami, and remaining olive mixture. Replace top half of bread; press halves together.
• Wrap sandwich tightly in plastic wrap, then in foil, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
• Cut into 8 wedges and serve.

Steps:

• To Make Olive Salad: In a medium bowl, combine the green olives, kalamata olives, garlic, cauliflower, capers, celery, carrot, pepperoncini, cocktail onions, celery seed, oregano, basil, black pepper, vinegar, olive oil and canola oil. Mix together and transfer mixture into a glass jar (or other nonreactive container). If needed, pour in more oil to cover. Cover jar or container and refrigerate at least overnight.
• To Make Sandwiches: Cut loaves of bread in half horizontally; hollow out some of the excess bread to make room for filling. Spread each piece of bread with equal amounts olive salad, including oil. Layer 'bottom half' of each loaf with 1/2 of the salami, ham, mortadella, mozzarella and Provolone. Replace 'top half' on each loaf and cut sandwich into quarters.
• Serve immediately, or wrap tightly and refrigerate for a few hours; this will allow for the flavors to mingle and the olive salad to soak into the bread.

Steps:

• To prepare either version of the olive salad, mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover, and refrigerate several hours or overnight, to let the flavors develop. This makes more salad than you need for one 8-inch sandwich. Extra olive salad will keep for a week or more and can be used in salads, sandwiches, etc.
• Lay the bottom of the muffuletta bread on a work surface, cut side up. Layer half of the cheeses and meats on the bread, then spread with 1/2 cup of the olive salad. Top with the remaining meats and cheeses.Finish with another 1/2 cup olive salad. Place top of bread on olive salad, and press down. Cut into four wedges.