How to make Italian Antipasto Salad

My Italian grandmother was the ultimate hostess. There are not many dinners I can remember having at her house where appetizers were not served. In classic Italian style, she often laid out antipasto platters (antipasto is Italian for "before the meal") full of olives, salami and marinated vegetables for grazing. Many times, though, she would lay out a different appetizer and then serve the classic Italian antipasto ingredients in salad form.

My grandmother's antipasto salad was so delicious and full of flavor - but light at the same time due to not being weighed down with heavy or creamy dressings. We usually ate it as a salad course but you can make a large helping of this salad and serve it as the entree as well. It's the perfect no-cook meal for busy school nights or warm summer and fall evenings when you don't want to cook.

This recipe is brought to you in collaboration with Cost Plus World Market, where many of these ingredients can be found.

Ingredients

• Butter lettuce* and/or Romaine lettuce*
• Baby tomatoes*
• Mozzarella (fresh baby mozzarella is best but cut up string cheese works, too!)
• Salami, sliced or sliced and quartered
• Olives, drained
• Artichoke hearts, quartered
• Other assorted marinated or pickled vegetables (choose your favorites!)
• Pickled mushrooms
• Peperoncinis
• Roasted bell peppers
• Pickled asparagus
• Balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt

*I recommend purchasing these ingredients as organic where available to avoid GMOs, pervasive pesticides and/or questionable farming practices.

The beautiful thing about this salad is that you start with a base of lettuce, tomatoes, salami, olives and artichoke hearts and then add nothing else, everything else or just a few more things! The salad can be different each time but still delicious! Be sure to visit World Market to see their selection of Italian foods and other International foods to help you plan your perfect meal. 

Directions

1. Wash and spin dry your lettuce. Tear into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl.
2. Add washed baby tomatoes, salami and mozzarella and toss.
3. Add artichoke hearts and any other wet (marinated or pickled) vegetables. Tear or cut veggies into smaller pieces as needed.
4. Toss the salad and assess how wet the lettuce is. Most of the flavor in the salad should come from the marinated vegetables and their juices - of course how much there is will vary based on how many vegetables you add! Add a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Toss and add more if needed.
5. Finish with a light sprinkling of freshly ground sea salt

Pictured product credit:

Plates: Nantucket salad plates from Cost Plus World Market • Fresh salad ingredients: Whole Foods • Salami: Columbus Salami from Cost Plus World Market • Marinated and pickled vegetables: Various (see links in ingredients list) from Cost Plus World Market • Olive wood salad tongs: Olive wood spoon (2) from Cost Plus World Market • Table: White Camille Dining Table from Cost Plus World Market • Salad bowl: Flared Glass Salad Bowl from Cost Plus World Market • Knife: Santoku knife from Pampered Chef

Italian Antipasto Salad

Author: Carissa B for Creative Green Living

Prep time: 30 MinTotal time: 30 Min

My grandmother's antipasto salad was so delicious and full of flavor - but light at the same time due to not being weighed down with heavy or creamy dressings. We usually ate it as a salad course but you can make a large helping of this salad and serve it as the entree as well. It's the perfect no-cook meal for busy school nights or warm summer and fall evenings when you don't want to cook.

Ingredients

• Butter lettuce and/or Romaine lettuce
• Baby tomatoes
• Mozzarella 
• Salami, sliced or sliced and quartered
• Olives, drained
• Artichoke hearts, quartered
• Other assorted marinated or pickled vegetables (choose your favorites!): Pickled mushrooms, Peperoncinis, Roasted bell peppers, or Pickled asparagus
• Balsamic vinegar
• Sea salt

Instructions

1. Wash and spin dry your lettuce. Tear into bite size pieces. Place in a bowl.
2. Add washed baby tomatoes, salami and mozzarella and toss.
3. Add artichoke hearts and any other wet (marinated or pickled) vegetables. Tear or cut veggies into smaller pieces as needed.
4. Toss the salad and assess how wet the lettuce is. Most of the flavor in the salad should come from the marinated vegetables and their juices - of course how much there is will vary based on how many vegetables you add! Add a light drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Toss and add more if needed.
5. Finish with a light sprinkling of freshly ground sea salt

https://www.creativegreenliving.com/2015/08/recipe-italian-antipasto-salad-appetizer.html

Copyright, 2015, Creative Green Living.

artichoke, mozzarella, salad, easy to make, no-cook

Main dish

Italian

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @CreativeGreenKitchen on instagram and hashtag it #creativegreenkitchen

Created using The Recipes Generator

About the Author:

Carissa B is a cookbook author and busy mom of two creative boys. The owner and lead writer at Creative Green Living, she has won multiple awards for her work on Creative Green Living including the "Best Green Lifestyle Blogger" award in 2019 from ShiftCon.

She is the author of the hardcover cookbook, Beautiful Smoothie Bowls, as well as the backyard chicken keeping guide: Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens. Her recipes have been featured in Urban Farm Magazine and in several cookbooks where she was a contributing author. Follow her on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or join the Creative Green Living Tribe on Facebook.

Do you like this post? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

When you subscribe you can download our FREE Recycled Crafts E-book!

This recipe was sponsored by Cost Plus World Market in 2015. All opinions expressed are 100% mine and reflect my authentic experience with this brand. I only recommend products and contest I personally enjoy and think my readers will as well. For more information, see my full sponsored post and review policy.