Antipasto Salad

At a Glance

• Antipasto salad is a classic, crowd-pleasing dish loaded with ingredients and tossed in a bright vinaigrette.
• Antipasto salad contains common ingredients like cured meats, cheeses, pickled items, and a citrusy, tangy oil-and-vinegar vinaigrette.
• This recipe can be an appetizer, main course, or a side dish for grilled proteins.
• Make this dish ahead of time and add fresh salad greens just before serving.
• Customize this recipe based on dietary preferences. Omit meats for vegetarians, swap in gluten-free pasta, or make it vegan with a focus on pickled and fresh vegetables and beans.

 

Antipasto Salad

For when you need to feed a crowd, whip out this easy-to-make antipasto salad recipe. It’s infinitely customizable depending on dietary restrictions, flavour preferences, and ingredients you have on hand. This recipe serves eight, but you can half the ingredient list if you’re only serving a few people. An ideal make-ahead dish, prep this salad a day before serving and keep it in the fridge, adding the salad greens just before serving.

 

What You’ll Need for Antipasto Salad

Tortellini: For some heartiness to this already charcuterie-inspired salad, we’ve included our Fresh Gluten-Free Cheese Tortellini. Stuffed with savoury cheeses like Grana Padano, mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, and ricotta, it’s hearty, fresh, and ready in minutes. You can also find the same robust flavour in our regular Fresh Cheese Tortellini.

Grissini: Our crisp seasoned breadsticks are made the traditional Italian way. These long, thin breadsticks are dry and crunchy, making them the perfect textural addition to this antipasto salad.

Prosciutto: Thin, delicate, salty, and savoury, our imported Italian Prosciutto is a must for this antipasto salad. Crafted using a traditional recipe from southern Italy, we gently wrap it around our grissini for a fresh twist on savoury breadsticks.

Giardiniera: A must for this antipasto salad is our Giardiniera. Spicy, salty, sour, and crunchy, it’s a jar of pickled vegetables packed in brine. Radish, carrot, green tomatoes, cauliflower, gherkins, green pepper, and red pepper all provide a welcome pop of colour, flavour, and texture.

Olives: Two kinds of olives appear in this antipasto salad recipe: Farm Boy™ Pitted Green Olives and Sliced Kalamata Olives. The mix of a more buttery, mild green olive and bold Kalamata olives lends the ideal balance. Their briny taste provides extra depth to this salad. Make sure your chosen olives are pitted before serving.

Mini Bocconcini: We like the creamy, mild bite of our Mini Bocconcini in this Italian antipasto recipe. Soft and fresh with a milky flavour, they’re made locally with 100% Canadian milk. You can also use small balls of fresh mozzarella cheese for a similar effect.

Marinated Artichoke Hearts: Crafted using traditional methods for an authentic Mediterranean taste, our hand-ripped artichokes are prepared in a way that preserves more of the fresh qualities that provide that delicious flavour. It’s simply not an antipasto recipe without marinated artichoke hearts! Ours have a slight herbaceous note thanks to the blend of spices, as well as the iconic tang from vinegar.

Pickled Bell Peppers: Our Pickled Roasted Red Peppers are grown in Greece’s North Macedonian region for authentic flavour. Roasted and then pickled, they have a depth of flavour that’s sweet, tangy, juicy, and fresh. They also add a nice pop of colour to your plate.

Pepperoncini: Salty, tangy, sour, and crunchy, our Pepperoncini is a delicious briny ingredient in this antipasto salad. We keep them whole for this recipe and drain them so they don’t make the salad soggy when added. Instead of being a source of heat, these have a mild taste and are more tangy than spicy.

Mozzarella Cheese: While our Mini Bocconcini provided a fresh burst of creamy flavour, we relied on our Farm Boy™ Organic Mozzarella Cheese. Lactose-free and made with 100% fresh Canadian milk, this semi-firm cheese has a mild flavour and nice bite. If you’d prefer a bit more variety in terms of cheese, you can swap this out for a sharp Provolone cheese or a firmer (but still mild) Medium Cheddar Cheese.

Salami: Salty and savoury, salami is an absolute necessity in any respectable antipasto salad. We’ve chosen our Rosette de Lyon Classic French Style Salami for this recipe. Crafted with a delicate array of spices, it has a rich, savoury flavour that plays beautifully with the other salad ingredients. For a wider variety of flavour—and pre-sliced convenience—you could also try our Salami Trio. Imported from Italy, each pack contains garlic salami, hot Genoa salami, and soppressata.

Chorizo: The final meat for added richness and robustness in this antipasto salad recipe is chorizo. We opted for Hot Chorizo for this dish, but you can use mild if you prefer recipes with less spice. Traditionally dry-cured in Spain, it has a smoky, spicy flavour thanks to cayenne pepper, garlic, and paprika. Slice it into thin coins before adding to the salad.

Lettuce or Arugula: Many antipasto recipes forego the use of greens, instead favouring meats and cheeses. We like the added pop of freshness and crunch lettuce and/or arugula brings. For a firmer crunch, we recommend romaine lettuce in this recipe.

Dressing: The finishing touch for this antipasto salad is the dressing. We’ve chosen our Italian Vinaigrette for this recipe. Made in Ontario with real ingredients like chives, crushed chili peppers, extra virgin olive oil, mustard powder, oregano, parsley, sea salt, and vinegar, it’s light, bright, and flavourful. If you don’t like classic Italian dressing, you can use our Balsamic Vinaigrette instead. Tart and tangy, it’s made in Ontario with only a handful of simple ingredients and is a tried-and-true salad dressing choice.

 

Tips for the Best Antipasto Salad

• Make it ahead of time. This salad recipe does best when it’s had time for the flavours to meld together. Make this salad a day or two before serving and store in the fridge in an airtight container. Just before serving, toss with romaine lettuce or your salad green of choice. Waiting until the last minute to add the fresh greens prevents them from becoming soggy, browning, or wilting.
• Cut everything into bite-sized pieces. No one likes picking up a forkful of salad and finding an entire lettuce leaf hanging off it. Make things easier for your guests (and yourself) by cutting everything up into nice, bite-sized pieces for a better balance of flavours and textures, as well as convenient eating.
• Don’t overcook your pasta. Like soggy lettuce, no one enjoy biting into a piece of pasta that’s veered into mushy territory. Cook your pasta just until it’s al dente to maintain a slightly firm bite that can stand up to the other salad ingredients.

 

Other Ingredients to Add to Antipasto Salad

Tomatoes: Fresh tomatoes can be a delicious, bright addition to this salad. Halved cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes are great, because they’re small enough for easy eating and have a nice juiciness and firm texture.

Lemon Juice: For a touch of acidity that can help bring all the flavours together, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice will do the trick. Frequently an ingredient in salad dressings, you can squeeze half a lemon over top of this salad and toss to mix well.

Chickpeas: If you’re making a vegetarian version of this salad—or simply want a bit of extra fibre and plant-based protein—chickpeas are a great choice. Drain them before adding with the rest of your ingredients. Other meatless inclusions or swaps can be cannellini beans and marinated mushrooms.

Red Onions: Providing a crispness and sharp touch, raw red onions add a nice bite to this antipasto salad. You can quickly pickle them or simply chop them and add them to your salad—whichever you prefer. Their natural sweetness and crunch help liven up the overall flavour of this dish.

 

More Hearty Salad Recipes from Farm Boy

Looking for more hearty salad dishes? Check out any of the recipes below!

Caprese Caesar Tomato Salad with Grilled Shrimp Skewers

Herbed Tuna and Chickpea Salad

Nectarine, Prosciutto, and Burrata Salad

Three Melon, Bocconcini, and Prosciutto Salad

South of the Border Black Bean Salad

Classic Niçoise Salad

Warm Octopus and Potato Salad

 

More Italian-Inspired Recipes from Farm Boy

Looking for more Italian-inspired recipes? Check out any of the dishes below!

Spicy Eggplant Pasta (Pasta alla Norma)

Tuscan White Bean Stew

Spicy Shrimp Ravioli with Rosé Sauce

Pasta with Pesto alla Trapanese

Zucchini Involtini Bake

Calabrese and Veggie Pizza

Parmesan Eggplant with Sugo di Pomodoro