Muffuletta

Central Grocery in New Orleans claims to have invented the muffaletta (aka muffuletta, muffelatta), which is named for the round Sicilian loaf that resembles a high-rise focaccia. It happened in 1906 when Salvatore Lupo, proprietor of the French Quarter grocery store, sliced the loaf sideways and layered in salami, mortadella, capicola, and provolone along with a thick ribbon of garlicky olive salad in the same genus as the giardiniera used on Chicago’s Italian beef. A traditional muffaletta, as made at Central Grocery (which now exists for no reason other than to make and serve it), is a foot in diameter – enough sandwich for two – and is sold as a whole, half, or quarter. Some restaurants do offer it heated; recipes extend to vegetarian versions; and there even are ones made on sliced bread rather than on a muffaletta loaf. Such variations test the limits of the word.