Muffuletta Pizza from the Pizzameister, Coye Jones

This recipe is an original from the Pizzameister: Coye Jones.

Our friend Bean shares the following about this recipe:
Bean writes:

This was a hit and will be made again and again.
The olive mix needed a couple more T. of olive oil and I used the entire mixed on the pizza (didn’t mix in the tomato, but put it on top instead). I also added hot pepper rings.

Muffuletta Pizza
by Coye Jones (Used with permission)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/3 cup pimento-stuffed green olives, chopped
1/4 cup black olives, chopped
1/4 cup pepperoncini, chopped
1/4 cup cocktail onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Roma tomato, chopped
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. dry Italian salad dressing mix
2 oz. Prosciutto or thin-sliced deli ham
2 oz. Genoa or hard salami, thin sliced
4 oz. shredded provolone
2 oz. shredded mozzarella
1 13" uncooked dough crust


Preparation:

Mix first 9 ingredients for marinated olive salad and chill overnight. (Prepared olive salad may be substituted.) Top dough crust in order with provolone, ham and salami, half of olive salad, and mozzarella. (Amounts of toppings may be more or less depending on your preferences.) Bake in preheated 500° F oven on pizza stone for 8-10 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 2-3 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

"The muffuletta"
One of my favorite things to eat in New Orleans, along with beignets and pralines, is a muffuletta sandwich, which derives its unique taste from a tangy olive salad and is a natural for conversion to a pizza.

First, some muffuletta background - the Italians, who immigrated to New Orleans after the French, Spanish, and African Americans and settled in the French Quarter, are credited with creating the muffuletta. It originated at the Central Grocery in 1906, which is still in business selling the sandwich at 923 Decatur St. in the Quarter.

Another version is that Tony Maceo, a native of Palermo, Sicily, who came to New Orleans, and created the muffuletta around 1901, also supplied Central Grocery with 6 to 8 muffulettas a day.

There are four main components to a muffuletta: bread, olive salad, meat, and cheese. As the most important component, a traditional olive salad is a mixture of olives and herbs marinated in red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. (There are several versions of olive salad recipes.) The bread is the second most important component and is a round Italian loaf of Sicilian origin. There are three meats usually found on a muffuletta sandwich: ham (Prosciutto or some other smoked ham), salami (Genoa or hard salami), Mortadella (sausage meat from the city of Bologna). The cheeses are mozzarella and provolone.

There are many versions of muffuletta sandwiches in New Orleans, and these are the best.

Muffuletta Pizza has become one of my favorites. It has the four main components of the muffuletta sandwich with the pizza crust substituted for the Italian loaf. I derived my version of olive salad for pizza by combining and adjusting several different recipes. The muffuletta Pizza can also be a very tasty vegetarian pizza by eliminating the meats.

Please visit Coye's incredible website: Homemade Gourmet Pizza Coye is not only a master pizzaiolo, but a wonderful person. What a combination!

pizza all over New Orleans,

albert

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And you really need some Juju music to go along with this pizza. And who better than one of my favorite bands: The Neville Brothers.