By Danielle's end-of-year school exhaustion, comfort cooking, smoked chicken. The summer heat is building the way a roux builds: slowly at first, then all at once, and when it hits, the only response is to keep stirring. Stirring the roux. Stirring the life. Stirring the pot of a family that is four at the table now (sometimes five when Luc comes home, sometimes three when Colette is at a friend\'s), and the stirring adjusts, and the adjustment is the skill, and the skill is: show up with the spoon regardless of how many bowls need filling.
The food this week was good. The company was better. The week was a week — not a milestone, not a crisis, just seven days of waking up and cooking and working and sleeping (six hours most nights now, bless Dr. Tran and the therapy that turned the water off) and being alive in Louisiana in the part of the year where the mosquitoes are back and the AC is straining and the only thing keeping the heat at bay is the cold beer and the knowledge that crawfish season is winding down and deer season is five months away and the calendar is a circle and the circle is the roux and the roux is everything.
The week didn’t ask for anything fancy, and honestly neither did I — but there’s something about a Louisiana summer that pulls you toward the flavors that feel like home, the ones that taste like the city even when you’re stuck in the heat forty miles outside of it. A muffuletta cheesecake is exactly the kind of thing you make when the circle feels right: olive salad, cured meat, that briny punch that cuts through the humidity and the cold beer and the noise of a table that keeps changing its headcount. It’s a showstopper that doesn’t ask you to perform — you just set it down, slice it, and let the room do the rest.
Muffuletta Cheesecake
Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 20 min (plus chilling) | Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 cup prepared olive salad (drained), roughly chopped
- 4 oz thinly sliced Genoa salami, chopped
- 4 oz thinly sliced ham, chopped
- 4 oz provolone cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- Crackers or sliced baguette, for serving
Instructions
- Prepare the crust. Preheat oven to 325°F. Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and melted butter in a bowl and mix until evenly moistened. Press firmly into the bottom of a greased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
- Make the filling. Beat cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in sour cream, oregano, and black pepper until just combined.
- Fold in the muffuletta mix. Gently fold in the olive salad, salami, ham, provolone, and roasted red peppers until evenly distributed throughout the batter.
- Bake. Pour filling over the prepared crust and smooth the top. Place the springform pan on a baking sheet and bake at 325°F for 45–55 minutes, until the center is just set with a slight jiggle. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake rest inside with the door cracked for 15 minutes.
- Chill. Remove from oven and run a thin knife around the edge of the pan. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight before unmolding.
- Serve. Bring to room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. Unmold, garnish with extra olive salad if desired, and serve with crackers or sliced baguette.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 390 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 30g | Carbs: 16g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 820mg