Have you ever had a muffuletta sandwich? It’s kind of ridiculous. A round loaf of sesame seed bread is loaded with multiple layers of deli meats and cheeses as well as a flavorful, Sicilian olive salad. It’s totally decadent and over the top, so it’s no wonder it originated in New Orleans! This sandwich is often attributed to Central Grocery & Deli in the historic French Quarter, but there are interesting oral histories about how this Sicilian style of bread and sandwich came to be made and sold here. Regardless of who originated this sandwich over 100 years ago, it’s still wildly popular to this day.
Now, in my humble opinion, the best part about this sandwich is the briny and delightfully tangy olive salad. It’s almost a cross between an olive salad and an Italian giardiniera, as it features cauliflower, carrots, celery, and peppers in addition to the olives. That’s what really seals the deal for me. I also love the bread (which is vegan by the way) because of the heavy dusting of sesame seeds on top. Who doesn’t love sesame seeds?
THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS PASTA SALAD
One day, I was walking around a local grocery store here in New Orleans, right down the street from my house. I saw some pre-packaged pasta salad, and upon closer inspection, I noticed it said ‘Muffuletta Pasta Salad.’ I gasped, as I frequently do throughout the day, and immediately called my mother asking her if she had ever heard of this. She said yes and I gasped again.
From that moment, I knew that I wanted to make a veganized, muffuletta-inspired Olive Pasta Salad for all of you. So here you are! Now, I know what you might be thinking- there’s no meat? Yes. You are correct. There is no meat and it simply doesn’t matter. I have upped all of the herbs and spices to the max, so the overall flavor is definitely still there. Instead of using a pre-made jar of olive salad (which is widely available in New Orleans, but not very accessible in other places), I’ve used a variety of olives from my local grocery store’s olive bar. I cut them into slices, along with some pickled cauliflower and carrots. Finally, capers, pepperoncini, and a zippy vinaigrette make it truly excellent.
ASSEMBLING THE PASTA SALAD
Aside from the olive salad ingredients, I bulk up this muffuletta-inspired pasta salad with a few different herbs, vegetables, and vegan cheeses. For sweetness and color, I love roasted red peppers. Chopped celery and red onion add amazing crunch. Then for herbaceous flavor, I add a good amount of fresh parsley, dill, and oregano. And for the cheese, we’re using vegan parmesan shreds and a smoked provolone. You could use whatever kind of vegan cheese you like, but a smoked variety works particularly nice with this salad. I wanted the dressing to be bright and flavorful to really hammer home that olive salad kick, so I made a red wine vinaigrette fortified with some tamari, garlic and nutritional yeast.
While you prepare the ingredients and whisk together the vinaigrette, all you have to do is boil some pasta. Using pasta is such a fun variation on the Sicilian bread from the traditional recipe, which can also be hard to find. Once it’s cooked to perfection, simply combine it with the remaining ingredients and enjoy. Of course, to finish this dish perfectly- a hefty sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.
I hope you love this Olive Pasta Salad, and happy Mardi Gras!
-Timothy
P.S. If you are looking for some other delicious New Orleans recipes to try, check out my cookbook and these other blog recipes:
Ingredients
16 ounces of pennoni or penne pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
olive salad
½ cup sliced garlic stuffed green olives
½ cup sliced kalamata olives
½ cup sliced castlevetrano olives
⅓ cup chopped pickled carrots
⅓ cup chopped pickled cauliflower
⅓ cup sliced pepperoncini peppers
1 cup sliced celery hearts
½ cup chopped roasted red peppers
¼ cup Peruvian pickled cherry peppers, plus some to garnish (optional)
2 tablespoons capers
1 cup chopped carrots
⅓ fresh chopped dill, plus some to garnish
⅓ cup fresh chopped parsley, plus some to garnish
2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano, plus some to garnish
⅓ cup diced red onion
¼ cup shredded vegan parmesan cheese
4 ounces chopped vegan smoked provolone cheese
vinaigrette
⅓ cup quality olive oil (Italian or Greek, cold pressed)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons tamari
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
⅓ cup sesame seeds, toasted
Instructions
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Fill a large pasta pot with water, add a healthy sprinkling of sea salt, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the pasta noodles and boil until al dente. (While the pasta boils, you can start preparing the olive salad ingredients or making the vinaigrette.) Once the pasta is done, drain and rinse it with cold water. Return back to the pot and drizzle with a good amount of olive oil. Toss and set aside.
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Chop and gather all of the olive salad ingredients and add them to the pot of cooked pasta.
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Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan or skillet over medium heat, moving them around so they don’t burn. Toast for just a few minutes, until they smell fragrant and are just barely golden. Add them to the pot of pasta and olive salad.
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Combine all of the vinaigrette ingredients together into a small bowl. Whisk until smooth and pour over the pasta mixture. Stir everything until all of the ingredients are well incorporated.
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To serve, divide pasta into bowls and garnish with reserved fresh herbs.
notes
For the pasta, I found some fancy noodles that look like oversize penne. You could use the normal penne pasta shape. Or the squiggly kind. Or even bow tie pasta- whatever you are feeling. Just don’t use spaghetti noodles, that would be a little weird. You're looking for something bite-sized, no need to overthink it!
For the olives and pickled vegetables, you have two options: The olive bar(!) or the pickled section of your grocery store. If you haven’t noticed, olive bars have a large assortment of ingredients other than just olives, so check them out. If you can find some Peruvian peppers, they make a great garnish.
For the cheese I recommend using smoked gouda or provolone variety. If you can’t find those, go with a regular provolone or sliced mozzarella cheese, as long as they are vegan. If they aren’t vegan the recipe won’t work. 😉
To make this salad extra pretty when serving, make sure to grab any tidbits from the bottom of the bowl and sprinkle them on top. Or set some of the chopped ingredients aside until ready to serve. Basically, you want to see all of the ingredients on top of the salad so each person knows what they're eating and it also looks super appetizing.
Food styling, photography, and recipe by Timothy Pakron
Text by Timothy Pakron and Hannah Kearing
20 comments
Perfect pasta salad for the first warm day of the year here in Oregon! This recipe was super easy to make, and very well put together… But then again, I have yet to make a recipe by Timothy that hasn’t been amazing! I will definitely be making this again!
Aww you’re so sweet. Thank you!
This pasta salad recipe is to die for. The pickled veggies add so much flavor and crunch! I would make this again and again. So glad I tried this. It’s so delicious and unique!
Oh, I love that! Thank you for making it! 🙂
We made it. We loved it. Will make it again and again! Thanks for this scrumptious recipe!
Yay! That makes me so happy!
I bought everything to make this for Easter! I can’t wait. Hope it’s ok to make the day before?
Totally! Actually better!
I made this recipe back in February. It’s so good!!! I think I may make it this week again. It’s refreshing, tangy, smokey and sour all at the same time. It gets even better in the fridge. I like to put mine on a bed of mixed greens.
Oh man, this pasta salad was so good I wanted to cry. You have perfectly captured the culinary magic that is the muffaletta. I will definitely be making this time and again. Thanks so much for sharing your magic with us.
This is off the hook. I used aquafaba instead of olive oil, and it’s still a calorie bomb, but the flavors were amazing.
It’s been so freakin’ hot and humid here in Dallas, that it feels like New Orleans in August. What better way to cool down than with a cold pasta salad. So I made this… and it was Ah-maz-ing! Perfect supper after a long, hot day working in my garden. Added some spinach and arugula to bump up the green content and had cold watermelon for desert after. Will probably bring this along to any Summer party, too- it’s so good, it must be shared!
This is the “I’m showing up to your backyard bbq unannounced, and plan to walk out with 20 new friends pasta salad.”
This tangy, rich salad was such a hit last summer, whether I was hauling my serving bowl across the park for a group of friends, or binge eating it from the comfort of my couch, each time I made it, I continued to double or triple the recipe in order to send friends home with to-go containers full to the brim and to assure I had a surplus to jump into for days to follow. My friend Sydney continues to troll me with a video of me standing under a tree carelessly digging into the pasta salad during a torrential rainstorm at the waterpark last year on my birthday. Worth the risk of electrocution.
This pasta salad made sure to leave an impression on my heart and changed the way I summer!
#muffdiversalad4life
Well, this is amazing to hear. What a lovely review! Thank you so much for letting me know you like the recipe. It makes me so happy to read this! Happy cooking!
This is one of my favorite recipes! I loved muffuletta sandwiches before I was vegan but even the last time I was in New Orleans I had to get the sandwich with only olive salad. This amazing recipe helps me get my fix without missing any of the other stuff!
Aww, I’m so glad this recipe helps you to scratch that itch. It does the same for me as well. Happy cooking!
This is sooo delicious! I like pickles and this pasta salad just hits the spot. I forgot the celery this time and I just picked out what was available from the olive bar. But I will be making this again and again.
I love hearing this!! So happy you liked the recipe. Happy cooking!
Just wondering – could you sub out a lot of the pickled/olive ingredients for a jar of olive salad? My grocery store sells the Central Grocery olive salad in a jar but I’m not sure what proportion of ingredients this would replace, or if I should just buy all the ingredients separately per the recipe. Thanks!!
Hi Cynthia! So originally I was going to just call for this store bought mix but I figured most people wouldn’t be able to get it. I would say you can swap out one large jar for most of the olive salad ingredients in the recipe (stuffed green olives all the way to the carrots). I would add the fresh herbs and remaining ingredients. Even if the large jar has a bit more than the recipe, I am sure it will be amazing. And it’s a lot of pasta to mix with! LMK how it comes out!