Muffuletta Olive Salad

Christmas 2021. The journal has ninety recipes. I added five this visit: Mama's oyster soup, her sweet potato pie, her Christmas morning pain perdu (lost bread — French toast, but don't call it French toast to Marie-Claire because "it's Cajun, bébé, the French borrowed it from us"). Each recipe captured in her voice, with her measurements (a "handful," a "pinch," a "pour until it looks right"), because the measurements aren't the recipe. The voice is the recipe. The voice of a sixty-five-year-old woman standing in a kitchen on a bayou, holding a wooden spoon, teaching her son the things her mother taught her and her mother taught her and the chain goes back to boats and Nova Scotia and the stubborn refusal to forget.

Gifts: Luc got driving lessons (professional — Danielle insisted, because Danielle doesn't trust my teaching method, which she calls "yelling suggestions"). Colette got oil paint supplies and a portable easel for painting outdoors. Rémy got a cast-iron Dutch oven — his own, personal, with his initials engraved on the lid by a blacksmith in Baton Rouge. He held it with both hands and said, "Now I can make the whole gumbo in my own pot." His own pot. His own roux. His own gumbo. His own initials on the lid. The chain is not just holding. It's engraving itself into the iron.

Writing down Mama’s recipes that Christmas — the voice, the handful, the pour until it looks right — reminded me that Louisiana cooking isn’t just flavors, it’s a whole way of standing in a kitchen. Reméy got his Dutch oven, Colette got her easel, and I went home carrying ninety recipes and the particular ache of wanting to feed everyone something that tasted like the bayou. This Muffuletta Olive Salad is that dish for me: it’s deeply, stubbornly New Orleans, it keeps in the jar for days, and it asks nothing from you except that you make it the way it’s supposed to be made — with good olives, good oil, and no shortcuts.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 20 min + 8 hrs marinating | Servings: 10

Ingredients

1 cup pimento-stuffed green olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pickled giardiniera vegetables, drained and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained and diced
1/4 cup pepperoncini peppers, stemmed and sliced
2 tablespoons capers, drained
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Chop the olives. Coarsely chop the green olives and kalamata olives so they are roughly the same size — you want texture, not a paste. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Add the vegetables. Add the giardiniera, roasted red peppers, pepperoncini, capers, celery, and parsley to the bowl with the olives. Stir to combine.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, and black pepper until well combined.
Dress and toss. Pour the dressing over the olive and vegetable mixture. Toss thoroughly until everything is evenly coated.
Marinate. Transfer to a clean glass jar or airtight container. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, and preferably overnight, so the flavors meld. Give it a stir before serving.
Serve. Serve over sliced Italian bread, layered into a muffuletta sandwich, spooned alongside charcuterie, or as a relish tray centerpiece at a holiday feast.

Nutrition (per serving)

Muffuletta Olive Salad — The Louisiana Table We Never Stop Setting