An #antipasto #platter is the key to not just a man’s heart, but to everyone’s hearts and to also their stomachs. It looks elegant but easy to prepare, it’s savoury yet also sweet and it will always deliver it’s promise to satisfy your guests at every occasion.
Select your cheeses.
We like to choose 3-4 different cheeses for your #antipastoplatter. Semi firm cheeses such as truffle pecorino, Jarlsberg and soft cheeses like Tasmanian brie and gorgonzola. You want to make sure that no cheeses are touching each other on the
#grazingboard. They need to have their own special place as they are individual pieces themselves. Cut some of the cheeses and place them on the grazing board like as if they were just born there, and so your guests know how assemble their own bite sized delight.
2. Choose your salumi.
2-3 types of cured meats is just fine to place on your antipasto platter. When you visit your local deli, ask them to slice your meats thin. Not too thin so they fall apart in your hand but thin enough to curl around a breadstick and hold its shape. We like to use the finest San Daniele prosciutto, wagyu bresaola, a mild Sopressa salami and also mortadella. Even though mortadella is a cheaper cut of meat, it still has a delicious flavour and pairs well with some cheeses like ricotta and provolone. Ask your grocer to help you select some cured meats to use for your next antipasto platter.
3. Accompaniments
Go nuts here. Well don’t go completely nuts but you can be imaginative as you like. Our favourites to include on a grazing board or a large antipasto platter are; quince paste, honey, nuts (literally nuts like almonds, pistachios, and walnuts) and even chocolate. We make our own chocolate shards. If you're feeling even more special, you can buy a pack of edible flowers and scatter them all over your grazing board too.
4. Antipasti
Semi sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, char grilled eggplants, grilled capsicums, olives (an antipasto platter is not the same without olives), and sometimes you could even include sardines to your #grazingboard or antipasto platter.
5. Bread.
We LOOOVE bread!! You cannot create an antipasto platter or grazing board without bread. It is a staple food in most households all around the world and it's a staple for a reason! Because it's delicious, humble, satisfying and you can eat it with pretty much anything. So it’s a given to include this on your grazing board or antipasto platter. You can also include on your platter, breadsticks, lavosh biscuits (you can pick these up from most supermarkets now) and wafer crackers. These will give your antipasto platter some crunch and texture.
6. Fruit.
Who doesn’t love fruit? We like to include grapes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, figs and even dried fruit like apricots. It does also depend on what’s in season at the time you decide to make your antipasto platter.
7. Design time!
You can choose any type of platter or board you like. We like to use timber boards, and sometimes marble or slate. Don’t forget to include some cheese knives. Rose gold cheeses knives look so beautiful up against any type of material antipasto platter. Arrange your crackers and savoury items first to your antipasto platter, then place each piece of cheese down on to the board - remember not to allow any of the cheeses to touch because we want them to sing on their own. Then add your cured meats, curling and waving around the cheeses. Place small bunches of grapes around your cheeses, berries and dried fruit can squeeze in the tiny spaces left on your grazing board. Then drizzle over the soft cheese with a bit of sweet runny honey and top with cut up figs. Yum!
8. Replenish!
Now you can sit back and relax and enjoy your grazing board with your friends and family but you want to make sure you have all more of all of your items to the side so that when something runs out like that creamy brie, you can always replenish the antipasto platter with more.
For more inspiration and ideas on how to make your very own antipasto platter or grazing board please visit our gallery at www.lapaparedda.com.au/gallery or our instagram page @lapaparedda