An antipasto platter is also known in French as a charcuterie board. No matter what it’s called, this is a staple for our family. Once a month we would buy and bake oven-ready appetizers, get out a massive wood cutting board and fill it up with roughly cut salami’s of various flavours, three or four different cheeses, cut up cucumber, celery, tomatoes, bowls of oil, olives, walnuts and more. And of course a basket of fresh bread. Oh! And let’s not forget we also had vino ? It’s a fun meal with quite the variety of flavours and textures and everyone loves filling their plates with what they liked; no one had to eat veggies they didn’t like!
When we moved to Belize we didn’t find the variety of cured meats nor were there prepared appetizers we could throw into the oven. Sadly we couldn’t even find a decent baguette and at that point I didn’t know how to make them. Thankfully I did know how to make pizza dough! With a bit of ingenuity we were able to create an antipasto platter that, although wasn’t exactly like home was, it was close enough. And as the years went by more and more foods were being imported into Belize! The bread still lacked something to be desired, but Pizzetti (fried pizza dough) is a pretty good alternative!
In Belize we didn’t always have access to fresh herbs so sometimes we had to use lettuces instead, which added a new delightful flavour.
When creating your families antipasto platter (or charcuterie) make sure to include all the wonderful ingredients you love, balance them with veggies and some ripe fruit and you’ll have an amazing meal! Below is the recipe for our board above
Antipasto (Charcuterie) Platter – Serves 4-6
Author Ordinary Day With Milena. All photos belong to Ordinary Day With Milena
Ingredients
- Mastro Hot Salametti, sliced about 1/8″ thick – don’t panic if it’s cut thicker!
- Mastro Salametti, sliced about 1/8″ thick
- Parmesan Rosette De Lyon, sliced about 1/8″ thick
- Parmigiana Reggiano cheese, cut into bit-size cubes
- Horseradish Cheddar Cheese – sliced into 1/8″ thick squares
- Small bowl of Bocconcini Pearls – Don’t serve in liquid
- Sliced ripe Tomato-on-the-vine, sprinkled with Himalayan Pink Salt and Fresh black pepper & drizzle with olive oil
- 1 Garden cucumber – 1/2 peeled and sliced thinly, the other half unpeeled and cut into 4
- Red globe seed-in grapes
- Walnuts
- Caper berries
- Ciabatta loaf, ripped into 4″ lengths – you can slice your bread but it’s more traditional to ripe it up & it’s fun!
- Small bowl of high quality extra virgin olive oil with balsamic on the side – each person pours the oil onto their plate
- Green olives – prepared by my father-in-law with fresh sliced garlic, dried oregano, olive oil; Kalamata or green olives with a pit is a good substitute
- Sliced roasted red peppers, drizzled with olive oil, crushed garlic, pine nuts and fresh greens or parsley, salt and pepper
Some other options to add for variety would be artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, garlic cheese bread, Cesar salad, cut carrots. There’s also a huge variety of cured meats, cheese and seafood you could choose from. And although not part of a traditional antipasto platter, you could have baked pastries like phyllo wrapped figs & brie, spanakopata, pigs-in-a-blanket etc. There’s no wrong choice so have fun with it!
Got some more ideas to add to your platter? Send it to me!