2014 Blogger Party – Antipasto Salad

This will be my last post from our blogger party and I’m only doing it because it ended up so differently from my original plan and I had a learning experience.  The plan was for me to make the antipasto on Saturday morning using a recipe from Epicurious.

I had already made the vinaigrette and assembled the other ingredients:

2 medium red onions (which I ended up forgetting to use)

4 hearts of romaine, torn or chopped

2 (8-oz) jars roasted red peppers, julienned

4 (6-oz) jars marinated artichoke hearts

2 cups pepperoncini

2 jars brine-cured olives, different kinds

1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved

2 lbs provolone, 1/4" julienne

1 lb pecorino, shaved

2 lbs salami, 1/4' julienne

1 ½ lb cappicola, sliced thin, rolled and sliced

1 ½ lb prosciutto, sliced thin, rolled

1 container anchovies, served on the side

My plan was to chop up the lettuce and mix it with half the dressing then arrange everything else on top and drizzle the remaining dressing over it, but since I was doing other things I asked Dave Scott if he would make it and he quickly agreed.

After he got all of the meat and cheese cut up and we were discussing the next steps, he said “if it were me, I’d ….”  Knowing he spent a significant amount of time learning to cook Italian, I quickly advised that it was him and please proceed.

He took about half the meat and cheese, cut it into smaller pieces, added it to the pan and emptied the pickling juice from all of the jarred veggies, saying it would be good for them to pickle the meat and cheese for about an hour.

When about ready to serve, he drained the juices from the pan and mixed the lettuce with the meat and cheese along with some of the vinaigrette, then topped with nearly everything else mixing it into the top part of the salad and finally added the rolled up prosciutto and shaved Pecorino Cheese.

Note: The red onions were supposed to be cooked lightly, cooled and added to the mix but I forgot them - we did add some raw the next day.

I thought it was outstanding and way better than what I would have done, mostly due to pickling some of the meat and cheese and I thought it was even better the next day even though the lettuce had wilted a little.  Thanks Dave for the great job.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

6/7/14 Event Date