Muffuletta Siciliana

In Palermo, on the second of November, the dead return to bring gifts to children and bread returns to the table in this form: round, soft, golden with sesame. Muffuletta is not bread you slice. It is bread you tear, bread you stuff, bread you share with those who gathered to remember.

The dough is simple. Flour, water, yeast, a touch of olive oil for tenderness. What makes muffuletta muffuletta is the sesame. You press the shaped rounds into a plate of seeds so thick they coat the surface completely. When the bread bakes, the seeds toast and perfume the kitchen with that unmistakable nutty warmth.

Sicilian bakers use semolina in their bread doughs, as southern Italian bakers have done for centuries. The durum wheat gives structure and a faint golden color to the crumb. Do not substitute. The flour matters. The time matters. The bread emerges from the oven and must cool before eating, though the temptation to tear one open immediately will be considerable.