Last Updated on June 18, 2022 by Karen
This Italian Antipasto Board looks impressive, but it’s actually so easy to create with storebought ingredients and in few simple steps!
Serving a charcuterie board piled high with cured meats, cheeses, fruit and crackers is one of my favorite ways to entertain. Not only does it allow guests to nibble on savory and sweet foods, but also lets you to prepare the dish ahead of time with little effort (and cleanup!).
Plus, no matter what type of snack you’re serving, it always looks more inviting in a large platter!
When I haven’t seen my girlfriends in a while, we always have a lot of catching up to do. It’s nice to invite my friends over, unwind and share stories without waiting an hour for a table or the chaos of a noisy restaurant. A simple happy hour at home with an Italian Antipasto Board like this one can be just as enjoyable as a night out on the town!
Here are the steps for making a picture-perfect Italian Antipasto Board in just minutes:
1. Choose a board or platter
The first step in creating a beautiful snack board is to arrange the largest items on a board. I used a large, round cutting board that would fit all my ingredients without overcrowding.
Depending on the number of people and what you are serving, you can use various sizes of cutting boards, serving platters, trays, or stone boards such as marble slab.
2. Pick the meats
I try to have a good assortment of meats and cheeses to make sure that everyone has something they like. My general rule of thumb is to serve at least three varieties of cheese and three varieties of meats. Depending on how many people you are serving, you can add more meat and cheese varieties. Since this is an Italian antipasto board, I want to stick to the Italian varieties.
For my choice of cheese, I like a combination of flavors and textures, maybe a soft cheese and a hard cheese, something with a sharp, salty bite, or smoky flavors.
Options: marinated mozzarella balls, burrata, fontina, taleggio, asiago, parmegiano reggiano, grana padano.
3. Pick the cheeses
In terms of cured meats, I pick a variety of flavors such as smoky, spicy. I like to roll the meats so they’re easy to grab and they look great too. You can also pile meats in mounds between cheeses to fill in open spaces.
Options: peppered hard salami, calabrese salame, prosciutto, bresaola, and spicy capicola.
4. Add some savory bites
In addition to the charcuterie, I like to serve some roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, marinated mushrooms, or an assortment of marinated olives in small decorative bowls and nestle them in between ingredients on the board.
5. Add some sweet bites
Adding a sweet bite or two helps break up the flavors of the antipasto board which is otherwise filled with savory ingredients.
A bunch of seedless grapes, fresh figs, dried apricots or dates would be tasty. Honeycomb or fruit chutney would be delicious too!
6. Finish with nuts and crackers
Last but not least, some important garnishes to serve with your delicious antipasto! I like to fill the empty spaces on the board with roasted nuts (I prefer unsalted or lightly salted nuts, since the meats and cheeses have plenty of salt on their own).
Be sure to finish it with some bread slices (like this easy no-knead bread!) or crackers around the edge. Sometimes it’s nice to offer several cracker options so people can pick and choose.
My favorites crackers by far are Triscuit with its distinctive crunch (and plenty of flavors to choose from!), gluten-free GOOD THiNS that you can feel good about, and Wheat Thins, which is 100% whole wheat with the perfect touch of sweetness. I picked up these crackers at Walmart, along with the rest of the ingredients on my Italian Antipasto board. It’s the perfect one-stop shop!
This board has been a staple at many of my casual (even last minute!) get togethers – the delicious bites are perfect for pairing with an Italian cocktail like aperol spritz or chilled prosecco. Better yet, ask your friends to bring one bottle of wine each from a specific wine region (for example, California, France, Australia, Spain). Everyone can describe what it tastes like to them, guess the wine varietal and see how many people can guess correctly!
Entertaining doesn’t sound too daunting, does it? I hope this helps you get started on your own snack board for your next gathering!
