This muffaletta recipe, classic to New Orleans comes from the pages of the Dayton Daily News. It's from chef Anne Kearney who spent 13 years cooking in New Orleans at the Peristyle restaurant. http://www.peristylerestaurant.com/
She now owns a restaurant she opened in the Dayton area called Rue Dumaine. The feature was on recipes for the Louisiana/Ohio BCS bowl game. You may need to make your own olive salad recipe below) ---- it's for sure that you may not find it at Wal-Mart type grocery stores. Try a specialty store, or an ethnic or gourmet section at Meijer or other stores. In any case, don't just sikip it - the olive salad is what sets the muffaletta apart from just another good sub.
Cut 1 loaf ciabatta bread in half horizontally and place the halves side by side.
Thickly coat one cut side with 1/2 c tomato sauce and the other with 1/4 c pesto. Spread the olive salad across the entire bottom of the ciabatta.
Lay the thinly sliced meats on top of the olive salad: 1/2 lb each: thinly sliced salami (Hard or genoa); sopressata - or boiled ham; 1/2 lb prosciutto. The layer on 1/4 lb sharp provolone cheese. Put the sandwich together and press firmly.
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place on a cookie sheet in the fridge and weight it down with a heavy cookbook or heavy flat pan. It needs to rest overnight or for 10 hours - can be made up to 3 days ahead.
Unwrap and slice into 2" slices.
Here's a quick olive salad recipe- there's a photo above that shows a jar of gardiniera (pickled mixed vegetables like carrots, celery, cauliflower, red peppers, etc) which IS available in just about every store everywhere, inclding a lot of 'dollar stores like Dollar Tree) - you'll also want a jar or 2 of oil-packed artichokes, a jar of black olives and one of green stuffed olives. (mmore olives than the other items in the end) Drain everything but not too well- leave a bit of oily juice..add a little olive oil and oregano to make it spreadable.... combine, and chop pretty finely.
There are lots of variations on olive salads but this will do to get you started. Most muffalettas are done on big round loaves of bread, so that's an option, too.
