The Big Easiest

When Salvatore Lupo opened the Central Grocery in New Orleans in the early 1900s, he started selling lunches to the local laborers. His most popular concoction was the muffuletta (moof-uh-leh-tah), a sandwich made on a giant round of chewy Italian bread. Before long it had become a New Orleans institution.

Lupo split the loaf of bread open and stuffed it with thin slices of Genoa salami, ham, cheese and mortadella. Then he spooned his secret ingredient on the top. This was, and is, a salty salad made from olives, pickled vegetables, capers, garlic, spices and olive oil; it’s what defines a muffuletta.

Just about everybody who’s ever been to New Orleans has had a muffuletta, and just about everybody has fallen in love with it. But you don’t need to go to New Orleans to get one: Central Grocery will mail-order the sandwiches by next-day air. But at $84 for six sandwiches (postage and handling included), they don’t come cheap. A better, and cheaper, idea is to order just the olive salad. You can pick up the rest of the ingredients at any decent deli and have yourself a swell sandwich.

There is one small hitch: Central Grocery requires a minimum order of four 1-quart jars ($38, including shipping). If that seems like a lot of salad, don’t worry; it makes a fine topping on pizza, pasta and plain green salad; it’s a perfect addition to an antipasti platter, and it makes a marvelous marinade for seafood. It’s also a wonderful gift for anyone who’s been to and loved New Orleans.

It may not be as good as a trip to the French Market, but as they say in the South: “Hey, the food’s the thing.”

Central Grocery

923 Decatur St. New Orleans, La. 70116. (504) 523-1620. Check or Money Order