Everyone knows the story of the Earl of Sandwich: keen not to interrupt a late night card game at his club, he asked for roast beef to be sliced and put between two slices of bread, to allow him to eat it with his hands without stopping his game. And lo, the sandwich was born. But perhaps less familiar to us is that 140 years later, some 4,500 miles away from the Earl’s cribbage game, another problem was being observed, and was solved in a strikingly similar way.

The turn of the 20th century saw an influx of Sicilian immigrants to New Orleans; almost 300,000 arrived in the city between the 1880s and 1920s, setting up shop (literally) in the French Quarter, in an area that became known as Little Palermo. They brought with them a whole host of Sicilian traditions, dishes and ingredients – including the muffuletta. Muffuletta (spellings vary) is a Sicilian bread, round and flat with a spongy crumb, and often topped with sesame seeds.

The key to this sandwich is bold generosity. Spoon on the olive salad until you start to question yourself

The key to this sandwich is bold generosity. Spoon on the olive salad until you start to question yourself

In 1906, Sicilian Salvatore Lupo opened Central Grocery in Little Palermo. He watched his fellow Sicilians shopping for traditional ingredients – meats, cheeses, relish, and the distinctive round, flat bread – and then trying to eat them and generally making a mess. He assembled the constituent parts inside the muffuletta bread, which quickly became........

© The Spectator