Recipe: Muffuletta Sandwich

How to make Tiana's Muffuletta Sandwich at home.

To celebrate the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World, we wanted to get a taste of some of Tiana’s delicious New Orleans-style cooking at home. Since there is a Tiana’s Palace restaurant at Disneyland, we decided to recreate one of the most popular entrees, the Muffuletta Sandwich.

Muffuletta Sandwich

Yields 4-8 servings

Ingredients:

Olive Relish

• ¾ cup pimento-stuffed green olives

• ¼ cup pitted kalamata olives

• ¼ cup jarred Italian giardiniera

• 2 large pepperoncini

• 3-4 cocktail onions

• 2 tablespoons capers

• 1 clove of garlic, chopped

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• ¼ teaspoon pepper

• 2 teaspoon lemon juice

• 2 teaspoon olive oil

Muffuletta Bread

• 3 cups bread flour

• 1 ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 cup warm water

• 2 teaspoons instant yeast

• 2 teaspoons vegetable shortening

• Olive oil

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Sandwich

• Mortadella

• Salami

• Rosemary ham

• Aged white cheddar

• Provolone

Instructions:

Olive Relish

1. Drain the olives, giardiniera, pepperoncini, onions, and capers.

2. Add all the ingredients to a food processor or blender and pulse until coarsely chopped. 

3. Transfer to an airtight container, like a jar or Tupperware, and refrigerate until ready to use, ideally for 12 hours for the flavors to meld together. 

Muffuletta Bread

1. Add bread flour, salt, sugar, warm water, instant yeast, and shortening to the bowl of your mixer. 

2. Equip your mixer with the dough hook and mix for 5 minutes, or until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl.

3. Coat a large bowl with olive oil, then place the dough inside. 

4. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1-2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.

5. Preheat your oven to 450ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

6. Punch the dough to let the air out and gently shape into a 10-12 inch circle on your baking sheet.

7. Brush the top of the dough with the beaten egg and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

8. Add a baking dish full of water to the bottom rack of your oven and then put the baking sheet with the dough on the shelf above it. 

9. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove the dish of water from the oven.

10. Reduce your oven temperature to 375ºF and continue baking for another 25 minutes, or until golden brown. The loaf should sound hollow if you tap on the bottom when it is done. 

11. Cool completely on a cooling rack.

12. Use a bread knife to slice the loaf in half horizontally, then quarter or portion into whatever size you want for your sandwich.

Sandwich

1. Toast two pieces of muffuletta bread.

2. Spread olive relish on the inside of both pieces of bread. 

3. Add a couple slices each of mortadella, salami, and rosemary ham to one piece of bread.

4. Add a slice of aged white cheddar cheese and a slice of provolone cheese to the other piece of bread.

5. Combine the halves of your sandwich and enjoy! 

Review:

The muffuletta sandwich was really good! The bread was so easy to make and definitely elevated the experience. The flavors of the meats, cheeses, and olive relish all blended together really well. You can easily customize the size of your sandwich based on how you slice the bread. I originally quartered it, but ended up cutting the quartered pieces in half again to make them a little smaller. If you have extra olive relish, make sure to try our muffuletta salad as well!