Fixing the Muffaletta

[Jenise]

Yesterday my husband and I had lunch at one of Bellingham's coolest (and, unfortunately, few surviving) non-chain restaurants. The Old World Deli is a veritable oasis In a town whose food cravings slant ridiculously mainstream and low-brow. Nearly all the white tablecloth, fine-dining restaurants that opened in the eight years we've lived here have all closed. What's left are chain restaurants and indie joints with low aspiration-amenties like salad bars (UGH)--Olive Garden will be the last restaurant standing. Now the Deli isn't white tablecloth and I didn't mean to confuse the two, I'm just saying that this town's overall taste is fairly pathetic so when it supports something that I also like, well that's something. It doesn't hurt that the proprietor has pretty good taste in wine and though you're only paying $10 for your sandwich, you can help yourself from the wine rack to a bottle of Vieux Donjon for just $69. Not bad at all.

Nor is staring at Ryan Stiles while you eat. When he's not trying to be funny, he's actually pretty good-looking.

But anyway, Bob and I shared a muffaletta and a reuben sandwich. I've decided that this is probably the last muffaletta I'll ever order. I love salt, but dang, this sandwich was so salty that the reuben, with all that pastrami and salt-cured cabbage, tasted sweet by comparison. It got me wondering if there's actually any way to put a spread of olives and peppers on deli meats that doesn't swell your ankles. Like, soak the green olives in water first. Or buy low-sodium pepperoncini--is there such a thing? It's such a great concept, but if the condiments make it impossible to distinguish fine mortadella from fly paper, isn't something wrong?

Or is it neccessary. Maybe that's just what muffaletta needs to be to be real, the nature of the beast. Maybe the true muffaletta afficionado would argue that take away the salt, and you take away it's soul. I could buy that, but hey, I'm not arguing for zero. I don't want decaf coffee or Diet Coke, I'm not trying to impress Dr. Oz. I don't have zero tolerance. I just want balance.

Anyway, not going anywhere in particular with this. Just wanted to vent....

Funny you should mention. I made muffaletta sandwiches (a wheel actually, made with an artisan Italian round) to take on our mushroom hunt on Sunday. I used a commercial olive mix but found I had to add some balance because it was not the salt but the vinegar I found overwhelming. I strained the olive mix over night and the next morning added garlic, olive oil and fresh herbs, which took the vinegar hit way down and enhanced the flavor quite a bit. I made a dijon vinegarette (for the bottom side of the bread) to which I added a hint of honey as a counterpoint to the olive salad. After tightly covering it and pressing it during travel, six hours later when we ate it, it was pitch perfect! I love a good muffaletta, but I don't think I have ever had a commercially made one that I like quite as much as I do home made. That may be the trick.

[Robin Garr]

I loves me some muffuletta! I've been enjoying them since my grandfather took me to Central Grocery in New Orleans for the classic version when I was still a little boy, so I've been eating them for a long time. Starting with the original, though, I'm fairly critical, and wasn't impressed with the one made at Jason's, a franchise-deli chain, much at all. Our lovable little local specialty shop, Lotsa Pasta, makes a good one, though, big enough to split and share or save for lunch another day.

The olive salad is a critical component, and it is indeed salty. Salames are salty. Provolone is salty. I'm afraid a muffuletta is a salty beast, and I'm almost thinking it wouldn't taste the same in a low-sodium version.

Do your ankles really swell up from salt, Jenise? I think it would make me mighty wary of sodium if mine did! But I can't tell if you mean it or if you're just playing for laughs.

[Jenise]

Do your ankles really swell up from salt, Jenise? I think it would make me mighty wary of sodium if mine did! But I can't tell if you mean it or if you're just playing for laughs.

The latter. But mine was so much so it was annoying, and like I said I have a high salt tolerance. It's just that there's salty and then there's SALTY, and this was just just too much. Rather than finish my half, I pulled out the meat and brushed off the olivada, ate that, then just ate the crust off the bread. Had no trouble eating my entire half of the Reuben though!

Jo Ann: I love your idea of tempering the salt with a bit of honey. The garlic would have made a welcome addition here, too.

Jenise,

First I confess that I have never made a muffuletta, So i can be considered off base. The link below is one I have used for years, and for Cajun recipes is unequaled IMO. I have no doubt the sandwich recipes including muffuletta are beyond reproach for authenticity. Just for clarity's sake, I have no $$ interest in the Gumbo Pages linked below.
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/samwiches/muff.html

Robin: Pleased to hear that Lotsa Pasta is still there and apparently still doing well. During our sojourn in Louisville we spent an awful lot of time---and money---there. It was a very bright spot in what was then not as much a food-friendly place as Louisville is now.

Lotsa Pasta, that St. Matthews seafood shop, and the old family grocery over by the cemetery (closer to Cherokee, was it?) were like little oases of foodie pleasure back then.

[Jenise]

Jenise,

First I confess that I have never made a muffuletta, So i can be considered off base. The link below is one I have used for years, and for Cajun recipes is unequaled IMO. I have no doubt the sandwich recipes including muffuletta are beyond reproach for authenticity. Just for clarity's sake, I have no $$ interest in the Gumbo Pages linked below.
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/samwiches/muff.html

Great link, Bob. Gives good perspective.