Sammie Nirvana

The time was right - Mardi Gras vibes still hanging in the air, beads akimbo, the taste of King Cake still lingering, and the non-prodigal but no-longer truly local offspring back in the fold, albeit briefly. What else could we do but whip up some muffuletta sandwiches!

You do know about these, right?? This is a sandwich to die for. The night before (was it John or Paul who sang that?) we whipped up a simplified Olive Salad (great name) , akin to recipe you'll find at the link.

In brief, you find yourself a good knife and set to chopping a goodly quantity of stuffed olives and pickled onions, adding capers, fresh parsley, and oregano. If you were adventurous and free of critical witnesses, other possibilities include anchovies and spicy pickled veggies. Ah well.

Next you track down some nice italian/french loaf rounds (admittedly not always easy to find - alternative forms grudgingly tolerated), halve (horizontally!), carve out some of the excess bread to make room for sinful contents, then spread generous dollops of Olive Salad (the equivalent of gumbo's holy trinity - the sandwich essence!) on both sides. And lastly, there is the chance for some creativity involving at the least provolone, mortadella, and salami, and you've got something to brag about. But you'd better take care of your piece of the sandwich before you think about any strutting around.

Putting the olive salad together the night before allows those incredible flavors to merge and amplify. Yes, the olives predominate, but capers, oregano, pickled onions, and olive oil are all out there on stage too. Our version was simpler than the one at the link - but far be it from me to argue with anyone's preferences! We simply did not have on hand all the spicy pickled veggies we would have preferred - I think gardiniera is one term for those wonderfully tangy darlings - but made do quite adequately.

This was our first experiment with the idea of pressing the sandwiches for a while after assembly - we improvised using plates and canned foods. The results suggest that is a good idea - mush that bread down so a normal jaw can find a way around it!