I love to see a mix of good black and green olives, marinated artichoke hearts and some nice peperoncini.

E mail me and I can send you a picture of the platter I made last week, Sadly our Eagles lost but the food was so good!!

When I make a platter I try to go for color.
Salami, cheeses, all sort of pickled veggies as well as raw veggies for crunch. This past platter I made a whole bag of grilled shrimp-Frank said they MUST be on every antipasta platter I make from now on LOL!!
Lots of bread, breadsticks and crackers.
I also add a flavored oil to drizzle if you care to....just steep some garlic and herbs in some olive oil-serve in a seperate bowl.

Have fun!!
Cheers!
Susie

I made a very large one at Thanksgiving time. This is what was on it:

Shrimp
Artichoke Hearts
Bruschetta
Green & Black Olives
3 cheeses
Salami
Peppered Ham (rolled)
Marinated Mushrooms
Pepperoncini

From "Essentials of the Italian Kitchen" (one of my classes):

Antipasti

Some suggestions:

Vegetables:

sweet red onion, thin slices
grilled sweet red and green peppers
grilled zucchini, preferably long slices

Marinated:

marinated artichoke hearts
boccocini calabrese (small round mozzarella; with tomato and basil)
marinated mushrooms
olives (a mix, pitted)
caponata (eggplant; see recipe)
giardiniera (see recipe)
peperoncini

Meats:

salamis
mortadella
ham
prosciutto (wrapped around grissini  very thin bread sticks)

Cheeses:

provolone
caciotta
caciocavallo
fontina

Seafood:

tuna
sardines
tuna-sardine terrine with fennel, capers and olives*
poached salmon

Hard-boiled eggs

All on a bed of torn salad greens with sliced baguette

Joe

We did a fun insalata caprese - grape or cherry tomatoes, basil and small fresh mozzarella balls. Cut the tomatoes in half around the equator and thread onto a sandwich pick: half a tomato, cut side toward the center of the pick, a fresh basil leaf, a mozzarella ball, another basil leaf, and the other half of the tomato with the cut side toward the basil leaf. We took a round loaf of Italian bread and studded the picks into it. IIRC, we cut the top off the loaf and put a bowl of dipping sauce (a vinaigrette) in it.

We like sliced, marinated hearts of palm on our antipasto platter too.

I love doing an Antipasto platter. It can get a bit pricey but it is so easy because all you have to do is unwrap, slice or removed lids! It's important to present it well so think of different shapes, sizes and colours when preparing. Roll some of the meat. some leave in slices. Vary the shapes of your cheeses by cutting into sticks, cubes , slices and leaving some whole to be cut as needed.

We like:

Veggies
roasted red peppers
selection of three type of olives
marinated mushrooms
marinated artichokes
marinated cherry tomatoes
pickled Italian peppers (mild and hot)

Meats

Selection of cured meats (hot, medium and mild) such as Sopresata, capicola, salami's, proscuitto.

I personally don't like Mortadella, those hunks of fat put me off. Also don't like pancetta again to fatty.

Cheeses

Fontina, Boccocini, Mozzarella, semi hard Asiago, Provolone. A Gorgonzola is a nice addition and not often done.

I like semi hard or soft cheeses . I don't care for the hard ones like Parmesan, they just don't cut well. I also don't care for smoked cheeses.

Carbs

I prefer sliced Italian Bread, French Baguette or soft bread sticks instead of crackers and hard bread sticks. Serve along with olive oil and balsamic for dipping.

Have fun!

One of my favorite antipasto things is marinated mushrooms. I would give you my recipe but I'm starting to get skeptical of it, I think there are better ones out there, mine seems kind of bland. Part of the secret I'm learning is to use portabellas or cremini and to sautee them in olive oil until they are seriously browned. I think in the past I have undercooked the mushrooms. Also be sure and use balsamic vinegar.

When I do antipasto I tend to go more Greek influenced--olives, hummus or a marinated bean salad, marinated artichokes, marinated feta chunks, stuffed grape leaves, melon, asparagus or zuchinni wrapped in proscuitto. Or just melon and a marinated green veggie if I am going strictly vegetarian. I'm not a salami or mozzarella fan. I mean the fresh mozz is out of this world, but not easy to come by and is expensive.

AnnT,

Do you have a recipe for your grilled eggplant stuffed with cheese? What kind of cheese? Do you just fold the eggplant pieces over? How long do you grill?

Sorry, I don't have a recipe. Antipasto platters are the kind of thing I just wing. The eggplant, like the other vegetables I grill, is brushed with olive oil that has been seasoned with fresh minced garlic and then grilled. While still hot spread with a little goat cheese and fresh basil leaves and roll. You could also use mozzarella or even sprinkle with some fresh grated Parmesan. You can put the rolls back on the grill to ensure that the cheese melts. Doesn't take long.

Ann

Mine's pretty similar to chase's.

artichoke hearts, olives, asiago, fontinella, boconcini, tomatoes, soprasetta, capicola, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, calabrese, roasted eggplant slices.

Ann T - gorgeous food pics! WOW!

I bookmarked this blog because I thought that I'd like to try this Antipasto platter. I really was more interested in the dressing because it looks like it would be great on any type of salad.

Here is a link that might be useful: antipasto platter

I like all of the stuff already mentioned, but one of my absolute favorite things are marinated long stemmed artichokes. They are kind of spendy, but so great looking and killer delicious that they are worth it. I've seen them at Whole Foods and some Italian delis. Or, if you know someone that works in a restaurant, they can order packages of them.

I'm posting this picture of Susie's Antipasto Platter for her. So many delicious items to pick from.

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"I included the following on my platter.
Olives-black and green
roasted red peppers
marinated mushrooms
Artichoke hearts
Gardinera salad
Cherry tomatoes
Provelone Cheese
Mozzerella cheese
Mortedella
Genoa salami
Proscutto
Pepperoni
Chick pea salad
Marinated red onion
Grilled shrimps
Served upon a bed of romaine with evo drizzle, bread, breadsticks and crackers.
Just thought you might like to see what I made-notice the tray was a gift from Sans!" (Susie)