Sometimes all it takes is one dish to set the theme for an entire gathering. That was exactly the case when I watched “America’s Test Kitchen” a few weeks ago. They were making a giant muffuletta sandwich that looked as impressive as it did delicious. I decided it would be the star of “Italian Night” at my place.

I remember making muffuletta in college when we first got our Cuisinart food processor. But instead of making a sandwich, we put the olive spread on toasted garlic bread. So it was about high time I upped my game. On the TV show, they made their own bread using pizza dough. I consulted my own book — “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook” — and saw that it called for a large round loaf of Italian bread instead. I actually like using the bakery bread better because it saves time (especially when you’re making other dishes from scratch for a get-together).