A wonderful appetizer to have ready as the quests arrive
Prep time: Approx. 45 min. (It depends on how much tender loving care you put into the presentation of this yummy dish!)
Antipasto Ingredients:
- 3/4 lbs. provolone cheese (fairly thin slices)
- 1/4 lb. genoa salami (sliced very thin, almost falling apart!)
- 1/4 lb. hard salami (sliced very thin, almost falling apart!)
- 8 oz. package of mozzarella cheese (Whole milk Polly-O brand!)
- 1 large or 2 small tomatoes (recommend ripe vine tomatoes)
- Some roasted red peppers (Jar with marinating in yummy garlic olive oil)
- Grilled artichoke hearts (In a jar with marinating oil)
- Fresh parsley (chopped fine)
- Soppressata (just a little chopped up very thin into small bits – all you need is one slice from the deli, sliced thin, almost falling apart – What the heck is Soppressata you say? – It’s an Italian cured dry salami. Delicious, however it must be extremely thin or it will be chewy.)
- Balsamic vinegar (Recommend Rozzano Balsamic Vinegar of Modena)
- Coarse ground back pepper
- Parmesan cheese (Preferably grated from a fresh block of Parmesan)
- A large serving platter and small bowl to place in the center (In the center of all this yummy stuff you want a bowl with some nice olives. Not shown in the photos is how I do this now. I have a bowl in the center with black olives, Italian green olives (he kind with the pits in them) and banana peppers (pepperoncini) placed around the perimeter of the bowl with the peppers leaning on the side of the inside bowl and the stems of each pepper draping over the top rim, looks great and of course is yummy as well. One thing I do with the banana pepper is poke a small hole at the tip and drain out the juices, this way it’s not messy when people eat them, they squirt you know 😉
See below for VERY detailed recipe instructions.
Directions:
This is how you build the yummy Italian creation known as Antipasto!
First
Get a nice large platter and rub it with olive oil.
Next
Place full slices of Provolone cheese in a circle around the whole edge of the platter, leaving space in the middle for your bowl. Overlap the provolone slices about 1″ each.
Next
Place your Genoa Salami in the same manner as the provolone cheese. Full slices in a circle around the platter overlapping.
Next
Slice up your Hard Salami in thin slices and place that on top of the Genoa salami in a random pattern.
Next
Add strips of Mozzarella and the sprinkle on the soprasatta. The soprasatta has a very strong flavor, you do not need much. Chop up the soprasatta into very small bits.
Next
Add your sliced and slightly chopped tomatoes and roasted red peppers (the roasted red peppers should be sliced up very thin).
Next
Take a sip of red wine then continue building your Antipasto…
Next
Add your artichoke hearts. I slice these up pretty thin as well but you want some good size chunks in there also. The artichoke hearts really add a kick to the Antipasto!
Next
Spoon out some of the artichoke marinade from the jar they have been sitting in and dribble some of this over everything you just built so far. Be sure to get some of the garlic and herb bits that are in the bottom of the jar.
Next
Add some fresh ground pepper and fresh chopped parsley.
Next
Dribble on some nice balsamic vinegar and then sprinkle on Parmesan cheese. You know what I mean by dribble right, not to little and not too much, you dribble just enough, capiche?
Note:
Now what you will want to do is get a sharp knife and cut this creation into pie shapes. You will have to work at this. Make a slice through the pile at any given starting point, As you slice you will have to wiggle the knife blade to separate the bottom provolone slices and the pile of stuff on top. Continue making cuts in this manor all the way around the platter. Then, once your slices are done, go back with two forks and carefully separate the yummy pile of stuff you have on top of the provolone slices so it’s pulled away from the slice location, thus making it easy to pull out a wedge of this stuff with a pie server. The idea is you server this like a pie with a pie serving knife, or whatever you call those thingies.
…Think of the Provolone cheese as the crust and everything on top as the filling of your pie.
Next
The serving part of this can be a little tricky because sometimes it stick to your pie serving knife a little bit. I recommend having a butter knife handy so you can help get the antipasto wedge of the serving knife if needed. Usually with a little wiggling it comes off no problem. There will need to be a fork available to eat this creation. Some may want a knife. This is not a finger food..
Next
This really is a treat! I could make a meal out of this stuff!
Antipasto Presentation
What I like to do for presentation is find a large platter with small bowl for center like you see in photo above. In the small bowl I usually add yummy stuff like, black olives, green olives, banana peppers (pepperoncini), etc… Whatever you like, keep it Italian though. Should be something you can grab with your fingers. The stuff in the middle bowl should be finger food. I highly recommend serving some fresh Italian Bread on the side with this Antipasto!
That’s it! You’re done….. Easy as Pie!
… To help clear things up about Antipasto and what it really is, here is a nice definition of Antipasto from Wikipedia: (They really nailed down a good definition of this dish).
Antipasto Recipe Photo Gallery
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