Muffuletta Grilled Cheese |Cooking With Amanda

In general, I'm not a person who has a motto. I try very hard to live by a certain code of ethics and consider myself a good person. But when I expire, my kids will never utter, "Mom always said..."

The only thing that vaguely resembles a motto is "never look back". That's my big advice, never look back, if you do, you may find yourself filled with regrets. No one has time for regrets.

Do I have any regrets? Well, maybe one. When I was in college, a huge group of friends went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I was too poor to go with them. I stayed home to work and to hang out at the usual dive bars with the other poor college students.

When my friends returned from their trip to the Big Easy, I admit I was a tad bit jealous of all their stories. That, my friend, is my big regret. I wish I had tried harder to find a way to go to New Orleans.

Sure, I could go to New Orleans now, but it wouldn't be the same care-free trip as it would have been back then. I have three kids, and even if my husband and I left the kids behind, I'm older and have no patience for throngs of drunken people. If I'm being totally honest, I can't stay up late anymore and I hate hangovers.

Instead of dwelling on the trip-that-should-have-been, I make muffulettas. I make muffuletta pizza and muffuletta dip just to keep in the spirit of New Orleans. I love Muffulettas! It's the olive salad that lures me in. It is such an easy thing to make and you can add or remove ingredients to suit your tastes.

For this grilled cheese, I chopped green olives, black olives, jarred roasted red peppers and spicy giardiniera. You could add artichokes, capers or banana peppers. It's up to you. My advice would be to make extra olive salad and try making pizza or a hoagie dip.

No matter what you do, make sure the bread is fresh - you can even use the sourdough bread recipe we have here on Food Fanatic. And definitely make sure you throw a flavorful side in there, like David's grilled sweet potatoes.

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Muffuletta Grilled Cheese Recipe

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Ingredients

4 slices sourdough bread
6 slices provolone cheese
2 teaspoons butter
2 tablespoons green olives, chopped
2 tablespoons black olives, chopped
2 tablespoons red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons giardiniera, chopped

Directions

In a small bowl combine green olives, black olives, red bell peppers, garlic and giardinara. Set aside.
Heat a skillet over medium heat.
Butter one side of each bread slice with a half teaspoon of butter. Lay two slices of bread, buttered side down in the skillet.
Place one and half slices of provolone cheese on each piece of bread. Divide half of olive salad and place over cheese.
Place remaining slices of cheese over olive salad, top with remaining bread slices, buttered side up. Toast sandwich for 3 - 4 minutes per side or until golden.