Sandwich Week: Messy Muffaletta

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Muffaletta. The New Orleans original usually comes stuffed with meaty and cheesy weirdness, but today's veganized version was a savory treat. Olive spread made from black and green olives, roasted red bell peppers, and garlic is the main flavor in this handful of a sandwich. Layered atop the olivey goodness we enjoyed faux salami, mozzarella-style Teese, roasted red and yellow bell peppers, and then another dollop of olive love. Also, we munched on herbed croutons in a spring mix salad with roasted zucchini strips. This took nearly as long to describe as it did to eat!

The Goods: The trick to muffaletta is to get a good, sturdy round of sourdough bread (it could be French bread, but since we're in San Francisco, sourdough it is), cut open the top, and hollow out the insides. Pack the ingredients into the bread all the way to the top so that the whole sandwich is one, solid piece, which will make slicing it into sections easier. (You can see that Elizabeth didn't quite stuff today's full enough, as the top sunk in a bit. More practice!) This is the perfect picnic sandwich, since it gets tastier and tastier as it sits all assembled and the oils from the olives get into the bread.