Italian antipasto pasta salad
This recipe is inspired by Chef John’s Italian antipasto pasta salad. I made the vinaigrette and thought it was amazing. I trusted the vinaigrette process, added the anchovy and he’s right, you would never know.
You can use whatever you want but normally you want pickled items, salty cured meats and a nice cheese.
Ingredients:
1 box (410g) fusilli, rotini, bowtie or other small, ridged pasta
Salad:
1 English cucumber – large diced
1 pint or 550ml grape or cherry tomatoes – sliced in half
175g red onion – thinly sliced
150g red, yellow or orange bell peppers – large diced
170ml jar of artichoke (or 90g out of jar) – sliced
70g sundried tomatoes – sliced
100g deli meat (salami, pepperoni, etc.) – julienned
200g mozzarella balls (bocconcini) – sliced in half
50g pepperoncini or hot banana peppers – chopped
70g green olives – sliced
70g black olives – sliced
Vinaigrette:
2 anchovy fillets (5g)
3 garlic cloves – minced
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1 tbsp regular Dijon mustard
½ tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp marjoram
2/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 ½ cup olive oil
Instructions:
1. Prepare all the salad ingredients.
2. Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain well but do not rinse. Allow to cool.
3. For the vinaigrette, to a large bowl, add all the ingredients except the olive oil and stir everything well.
4. Slowly pour in the olive oil and whisk well to emulsify.
5. Add the cooled pasta to the bowl with the vinaigrette and combine well.
6. Add all the salad ingredients and combine everything.
7. Enjoy!
Italian Antipasto Pasta
Salad Inspired by Chef John It’s too hot to cook so let’s
make a flavour-packed pasta salad inspired by the wonderful Chef John. This salad contains a ton
of antipasto ingredients, pasta and is covered in a tangy vinaigrette.
Cut everything so it’s roughly the same size and not bigger than the pasta.
Start with one whole English cucumber. Cut it in half or thirds for easier handling, then slice
lengthwise into quarters. Remove the seeds, then slice once more lengthwise to get thinner planks.
Bring the planks together, then dice into cubes. Next is a pint, or 550g of grape or cherry
tomatoes. Here I have a colourful medley and I’m just going to slice them in half.
I’ll slice the bigger ones in quarters. Next I’ll thinly slice 170g or half a red onion.
I’ll next add 175g of bell peppers. I’m using these mini, colourful sweet peppers. A key
part of this salad is presentation so I really recommend using red, yellow or orange.
I’ll remove the inner flesh and seeds, then slice them into planks and large dice them.
I drained a small, 170ml jar of artichoke and I’ll just roughly chop them.
This ends up being about 90g. I’ll slice up about 70g of sundried tomatoes.
You really don’t need to worry too much about the exact measurements of the salad ingredients.
Here I have a 100g package of three kinds of salami. I’ll stack them to make them easier
to slice. Then turn and slice again as you want the pieces smaller than the pasta. You can
use pepperoni or other kinds of sausage. If you use ham, do not use honey glazed,
the taste doesn’t work here. Then I’ll just fluff the pieces to separate them.
For the cheese, I’m using 200g of bocconcini or mozzarella balls. I’ll just
slice these in half. I sometimes use provolone as it gives a nice sharp bite.
Next I have a mixture of 50g of banana peppers and pickled jalapenos that I’ll chop up. Normally
you would use pepperoncini, but I went to three stores and couldn’t find them so I improvised.
Now I’ll make the pasta. Once a pot of water comes to a boil, add a generous amount
of salt and add the pasta. I’m using a box of fusilli, which is about 410g.
Stir to prevent sticking and cook according to package instructions. The pasta
isn’t going to soften so cook past al dente. Drain the pasta but do not rinse or
you’ll lose the starchiness and saltiness. Use any kind of spiral or ridged pasta
that will hold onto the vinaigrette. Stir to loosen and release more water and let
sit to cool while we make the vinaigrette. To a large bowl, add two anchovy fillets
and I’ll justify this in a minute. Grate in 3 garlic cloves.
Add 3 tbsp mayonnaise, 1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard,
1 tbsp regular Dijon mustard, ½ tbsp dried oregano,
1 tsp dried thyme, And ½ tsp marjoram
Then finish with 2/3 cup of red wine vinegar and stir everything well.
Apple cider vinegar would also be nice. Now slowly pour in 1 ½ cup of
olive oil and whisk in to emulsify. About the anchovies. This vinaigrette is
almost exactly the same as Chef John’s recipe. He promised you wouldn’t
notice the anchovy and he’s right, it just adds a nice saltiness and depth
of flavour. But skip them if you want. Keep whisking until it’s frothy. The anchovies
won’t completely break down so you can remove them as it’s the flavour you want added.
By this point, the pasta should be fully cooled. Add it to the bowl of
vinaigrette and stir well to fully coat. Now add all the ingredients. For
some reason, I stirred in between ingredients but there’s no need to do that.
Cut everything so it’s roughly the same size and not bigger than the pasta.
I also added 70g each of sliced back and green olives.
There are so many salty ingredients, I didn’t add any additional salt
and I felt pepper wasn’t needed. And that’s it! A bit of chopping, but
worth it for a giant bowl of bold, zesty pasta salad. Perfect for potlucks,
barbecues, I packed it for lunches all week, passed some along to a friend, and even snuck a
few bites here and there when the craving hit.
1 Comment
i love the recipe Anita, but who is John?