The basic ingredients of a classic muffaletta sandwich – olive salad, cold cuts and cheese – lend themselves to many interpretations, like this platter salad. In fact, the idea for this started to percolate when I last made my muffaletta cheese ball. This layered dip presentation is twist to a classic spread that’s pretty impressive on the table. But it has that slightly messy but elegant look that I think defines Mardi Gras pretty well! Serve this with plain or toasted French bread, or scoop it up with corn chips.
My instructions are meant to make this the most efficient process with the fewest amount of dishes to wash. I drain the giardiniera in a colander and transfer it to the food processor, then drain the olives while I pulse the giardiniera, then the olives in the processor while draining the peppers. You can put each ingredient into its own bowl, but I find simply making separate piles on one dish is easiest. I usually use a quarter sheet pan lined with plastic wrap to make clean-up even easier. You don’t want to make a paste of any of these vegetables, but you do want everything small enough that it will be easy to scoop and spread. I buy a block of provolone from the deli counter, asking them to cut off one 8 ounce hunk so I can grate it. I do the same with the salami and mortadella, but sometimes the only mortadella I can find is pre-sliced, in which case I use that and snip it into little pieces.
If you want to make this ahead, refrigerate all the prepared elements separately and covered with plastic wrap and assemble no more than an hour before serving.
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Ingredients
1 (12-ounce) jar giardiniera
1 (5.75 ounce) jar green olives with pimentos
1 cup pickled banana pepper slices (from 16-ounce jar)
8 ounces provolone cheese, grated
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons milk
4 ounces genoa salami (in one piece from the deli, not sliced)
4 ounces mortadella (in one piece from the deli, not sliced)
Crispy baguette slices
Directions
- Drain the giardiniera in a colander and place it all in the bowl of a small food processor. Pulse until you have a fine, grainy mixture, but not a paste. Almost like grains of rice. Scrape the onto one section of a plate or a small, rimmed baking sheet (you can line it with plastic wrap or foil for easy clean up). Rinse out the processor bowl and dry. Drain the olives, put in the food processor and pulse to grainy again. Scrape it onto a section of the plate, keeping it from touching the giardiniera. Rinse and wipe dry the processor. Drain the banana peppers and pulse as above, piling it onto its own little section of the plate. Put 2 Tablespoons each of the giardiniera, olives and peppers back into the processor, add the cream cheese cut into cubes, the milk and 1 cup of the grated provolone. Process until smooth and well combined. Spread the cream cheese mixture into a circle on a serving plate, about ½ inch thick, with a little indention in the center.
- Cut the salami and the mortadella into small bite-size cubes. Now start layering. Spoon about half the chopped giardinera over the cream cheese, then the olives, then the peppers, the meats, then some provolone, then repeat, topping with the grated provolone. Do your best to keep the toppings inside the cream cheese in a nice little stack, but some is likely to escape. Garnish the top with some banana pepper rings and an olive if you like. Serve with toasted bread slices.
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