Muffuletta (Cook's Illustrated)

This is from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, the same folks as Cook's Illustrated. I trust them with any endeavor. I haven't tried this recipe yet. This is an uncooked sandwich, so I used the "cooking time" to enter the minimum amount of time you'd have to have to let everything marinade and meld as needed This recipe is different from others already posted because it uses oil-packed, sun-dried tomatoes in the olive salad. Sounds good to me!

• Ready In: 9 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 6

Ingredients

• Olive Salad

• 1  cup green olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
• 1  cup black olives (pitted and coarsely chopped)
• 3⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4  ounces  jarred  roasted red peppers (drained and chopped fine, 1/2 cup)
• 4  ounces sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (drained and chopped, 1/2 cup)
• 1⁄4 cup  minced fresh parsley
• 2  tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1  teaspoon dried oregano
• 1  garlic clove, minced

• Sandwich

• 1  large  round  Italian bread (or French bread)
• 8  ounces  thinly sliced mortadella
• 8  ounces  thinly sliced provolone cheese
• 8  ounces  thinly sliced  hard salami

Directions

1. For the olive salad, mix everything together. Cover and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours.
2. To make the sandwich: Drain olive salad, saving the marinade. Cut the bread in half horizontally and remove most of the soft interior. Brush both inside pieces of the bread with the reserved marinade.
3. Place half of the olive salad in the bottom half of the hollowed-out bread. Top it with the cold cuts. Put on the rest of the olive salad. Put top half of bread on top of it all.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap. Put it between two dinner plates. (It might work best to turn the top plate upside down, depending on if the plates have any curvature to them or not.) Put 2 or 3 heavy cans on top of it to work as weights. (Mufuletta is pressed-down sandwich). Chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours.
5. To serve, unwrap and cut into wedges.