Perfect Picnic Sandwich (Muffuletta)

Today's my birthday. It doesn't really feel like my birthday though. Is it true that birthdays get less and less exciting as you get older? That makes me sad, I love birthdays. Unfortunately today has been pretty down right lonely. But I suppose that's my own fault, people don't know you're alone unless you say something. We are moving in a week. Yikes this is coming fast! So today I've been doing a whole lot of packing, cleaning, oh and some laundry. I would say that's probably a pretty good reason why it doesn't feel like a birthday either.

When my husband asked what I wanted to do for my birthday I suggested a picnic. There's a local vineyard that has a beautiful, big, grassy lawn to sit out on and enjoy the sunset and music. They have a terrific Friday night music series during the summer! So I think my birthday will start looking up before too long. I had to make my favorite sandwich for tonight's celebration. Have you ever heard of Muffuletta? It's basically a meat and cheese stuffed loaf of bread. It's AMAZING! Really you can take the concept and make it with whatever ingredients you want. Here's what I used:

Italian or French bread works really well for this. I usually get my olive salad at the olive bar at my local grocery store. You can also make your own. I recently found the stuff below and thought I would give it a try. It also has peppers and other veggies. 

Muffuletta (click here for the printable recipe)

1.) Cut the top off the bread and pull out all the extra bread inside leaving just the crusty shell.  (Wondering what to do with this extra bread? It makes great bread crumbs or is really yummy dipped in olive salad as a snack)


2.) Drizzle both the top and bottom of the bread with oil from the olive salad, you can also use regular Olive Oil. 


3.) Add a good layer of salami, then provolone, next capicola, then ham. Keep adding these layers until you get to the top.


4.) Finally top all the meat and cheese with a heaping amount of olive salad, then add some arugula.


5.) Place the top of the bread back on and press down lightly. 


6.) Lay out some foil and then some plastic wrap. Place the muffuletta on top and tightly wrap in plastic wrap then in foil. Put the wrapped muffuletta in the fridge and put a plate or something heavy on top.


7.) After a few hours take the muffuletta out of the fridge and cut in half and then in half again. You can the wrap it up again for your picnic. After its cut I usually wrap them in individual servings.

Think of all the different ingredients you could stuff a loaf of bread with, the possibilities are endless! You've got to try making your own perfect  picnic sandwich. I would love to hear what ingredients you use to make yours with. 


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