The meaty, mighty MUFFULETTA
Bayou City pays homage, with a twist, to New Orleans-born sandwich of Italian meats, cheeses and olive salad
After an employee described his experience eating a muffuletta in New Orleans, his bosses at Brett’s Barbecue Shop started thinking about creating their own spin on the iconic Big Easy sandwich. Pitmaster/owner Brett Jackson got busy smoking brisket pastrami, turkey, ham and bologna. General manager Jacqueline Herrera began concocting a version of the zippy olive salad that makes the sandwich famous. After weeks of research and development, Brett’s Barbecue’s Texas Smoked Muffuletta is ready to make its mark as a distinctly Houston and wholly barbecue-inspired version of the New Orleans-born culinary gem.
“There’s definitely people out there excited about the muffuletta,” Herrera said. “I had no idea there are that many people who love the muffuletta.”
Though not as widely available as the po’boy, the muffuletta makes a happy home in Houston. And in ways beyond the original construct: There are muffuletta po’boys, such as the Mandola’s Deli sandwich; the muffuletta burger from Hubcap Grill; and a new muffuletta salad at Brennan’s of Houston.
But it is the original, distinctive wheel-shaped sandwich stuffed with Italian deli meats and slathered with a bracing giardiniera-laced olive salad that gets the juices flowing. Especially now, when many Houstonians would have been visiting New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival or getting revved up for the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival that has been moved to October. A muffuletta, especially one from its birthplace, Central Grocery & Deli, is always on the agenda for Houstonians visiting New Orleans.
Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant who founded Central Grocery in the city’s French Market in 1906, is widely credited with inventing the sandwich. Sicilian farmers who sold their produce at the market would go to the store to buy lunch — salami, ham, cheese, olives and bread that were eaten separately. Lupo, according to the store’s history, decided to make things easier for them by sandwiching the components in a round, sesame-seeded loaf. The sandwich takes its name from the Sicilian sesame bread, and its origins pre-date the invention of New Orleans’ famous po’boy sandwich in 1929.
The iconic muffuletta is a thing of beauty: layers of mortadella, salami, ham and provolone cheese snug inside a round bread saturated with olive-oilslicked chopped olive salad. It is that crunchy, tangy salad that distinguishes the sandwich.
It’s easy to make at home by loading up your favorite cold cuts — think of the muffuletta as a sandwich version of antipasti — on your favorite bread. Herrera, Brett’s GM, found her round loaf at Kroger from La Brea Bakery brand. Phoenicia Specialty Foods markets sells an Armenian bread called madnakash that can be used to make a muffuletta. H-E-B stocks ready-made jarred Central Grocery Olive Salad. Or you can easily chop up your own version.
The muffuletta is also free to interpretation.
At Paulie’s Poboys (two locations in Houston), the sandwich comes with a light frosting of mayonnaise that helps its zesty, house-made olive salad bind to the bread and the stack of salami, ham, mortadella and provolone on a round, sesame-seeded roll from Houston’s Royal Bakery. Lightly toasted, it is Paulie’s bestselling sandwich, said owner Ann Hrieshie.
D’Amico’s Italian Market Café in Rice Village makes a proper muffuletta. Houston’s Famous Deli, 2130 Holly Hall, offers four versions of the “muffaletta” sandwiches including ham, salami and provolone; turkey and provolone; pastrami and provolone; and its King’s Muffaletta, the top seller, made with ham, turkey, salami and provolone. The Rouxpour, with four locations in the Houston area, now has Muffaletta Sliders made with salami, ham, provolone and Parmesan cheeses with mayonnaise and olive salad. Montrose Cheese & Wine offers a muffuletta every Wednesday as sandwich of the day, made with pistachio-studded mortadella, spicy capocollo, Genoa salami, provolone and olive tapenade on house-made focaccia.
Ragin’ Cajun, 4302 Richmond, might sell the city’s best-known muffuletta, which it calls a “muffalotta” for the original name for the bread.
“Like a po’boy, it all starts with the bread,” said owner Dominic Mandola, who uses sesameseeded round loafs made for the restaurant by Cake & Bacon wholesale bakery in Houston. “I sell a ton of them.”
For good reason. Ragin’ Cajun lavishes attention on its muffs, which enjoy a light smear of mayonnaise that is dusted with grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses. This step creates a binder for the olive salad, ham, salami and provolone that melt together when the whole sandwich is toasted in the oven. There is a welcome sharpness from the salty cheeses and bracing olive salad that gives way to the warm meats. The toasting lends a slight crunch to each bite. They’re sold half and whole, and every Saturday a half muffuletta with onion rings and a soda sells for $16 as a special.
Though some New Orleanians may argue that a muffuletta be served at room temperature and never heated, many Houston versions opt for a light toasting.
Two years ago, Montrose beer bar The Hay Merchant put a meaty muffuletta on its menu, and it has become one of the most popular dishes.
Built on a round loaf from Royal Bakery, the Hay Merchant muff is filled with salami, capicola, mortadella, Swiss and provolone cheeses, and olive salad. The sandwiches are wrapped and refrigerated for 24 hours, which lets the olive-oilslicked salad work its magic with the bread. It is then toasted before serving, which awakens both the bread and the meats.
“The fats start to release. And you’ve got the hot olives and peppers,” said owner Chris Shepherd, who credits Hay Merchant sous chef Lucas McKinney for bringing the sandwich to the restaurant lineup. “I’m an absolute fan.”
Brett’s Barbecue Shop’s smoked sandwich — made with house-smoked pastrami, turkey breast, bologna and ham; havarti and provolone cheeses; and hot giardiniera/olive/red pepper salad on an Italian round loaf — made an intense debut at the Katy restaurant last week and will return as a special on April 23.
Another newbie also arrived this month. Quy Hoang, pitmaster partner at Blood Bros. BBQ, recently fashioned a sandwich special made from his house-made capicola (which he smokes), soppressata, mortadella, provolone and housemade olive salad packed in a sesame-seeded bun made by pastry chef Alyssa Dole.
“I just like cold cuts. They’re my favorite thing to eat,” Hoang said. “We wanted to put our own twist on it, our own spin.”
The Blood Bros. muffuletta will be offered as an occasional special at the barbecue restaurant and certainly will have a home when the partners team with Dole to open their bodega-style deli shop and bakery at the Stomping Grounds at Garden Oaks this fall.