Alotta Muffuletta

Fact: I'm not a sandwich person. They aren't something I typically enjoy. And therefore, before I tried this super-fun-to-say delight made by a super authentic Louisianan at a super fun Mardi Gras celebration, I was fully prepared to hate it.

But I didn't hate it. I LOVED it. I brought one home and Adam loved it too. So much so that we decided to try to make some ourselves. The result is what is pictured above - not the prettiest looking thing, but just as delicious as the first one I had.

The meat and cheese combo is delicious, but the olive salad is what makes this so good. Its briny and oily and just delish. We cheated and used a store bought kind rather than attempting to make that from scratch, and I didn't feel bad about that at all. Yum, yum, yum.

Now, our concotion isn't totally authentic, so I'll post a general recipe and include my changes.

Muffuletta

1 10" round loaf Italian bread with sesame seeds (I couldn't find anything resembling this, so we used a rectangular-shaped Ciabatta loaf and it worked great)
1 Recipe Olive Salad (Found this at the deli counter at the grocery store - good enough for me!)
1/4 lb Genoa Salami
1/4 lb Capicola Ham
1/4 lb Mortadella (all these meats should be available at your local deli counter...I didn't even know what Mortadella was, but fyi, its an Italian cured sausage that kind of looks like bologna)
1/4 lb sliced Mozzarella
1/4 lb sliced Provolone

To create: Cut bread in half length-wise. Remove some of the insides to make room for all the goodness. Spread olive salad on both sides of the bread. Layer meats and cheeses on one half of the bread, top with the other half, and ENJOY.

You can make this a few hours ahead of time, but I wouldn't do much more than that because you don't want the olive salad making the bread soggy.