Muffuletta (cook's Illustrated)

Total Time: 9 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 9 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1 cup green olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
• 1 cup black olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 ounces jarred roasted red peppers (drained and chopped fine, 1/2 cup)
• 4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (drained and chopped, 1/2 cup)
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 large round italian bread (or french bread)
• 8 ounces thinly sliced mortadella
• 8 ounces thinly sliced provolone cheese
• 8 ounces thinly sliced hard salami

Recipe

• 1 for the olive salad, mix everything together. cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.
• 2 to make the sandwich: drain olive salad, saving the marinade. cut the bread in half horizontally and remove most of the soft interior. brush both inside pieces of the bread with the reserved marinade.
• 3 place half of the olive salad in the bottom half of the hollowed-out bread. top it with the cold cuts. put on the rest of the olive salad. put top half of bread on top of it all.
• 4 wrap in plastic wrap. put it between two dinner plates. (it might work best to turn the top plate upside down, depending on if the plates have any curvature to them or not.) put 2 or 3 heavy cans on top of it to work as weights. (mufuletta is pressed-down sandwich). chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.
• 5 to serve, unwrap and cut into wedges.