antipasto salad

A Ridiculously Big Salad I invented because I missed a sub I used to get at Wegmans, so looked up the ingredients and bought them at the deli. Originally, I called this my sub salad, but I upgraded the name to antipasto salad.

This is freaking heaven in my mouth.

Ingredients

For four days, this is what I get from the deli:

• 1/4 pound each of hot ham, capocollo, sopressata, pepperoni
• 1 pound of liverwurst (not part of the sub, but I rarely get organ meat in my diet, and this is a good place to add it).
• 1/4 lb of mild provolone and/or fresh mozzarella

Other toppings:

• sliced dill pickles (I use real fermented ones!)
• black olives
• diced red onion (but scallions are lower carb, and currently free in my garden)
• giardiniera (I plan to ferment some this fall)

lettuce:

My first time, I bought a couple bags each of butter lettuce and of Italian mix (romaine, radicchio, endive). But until my garden stops producing ridiculous amounts of lettuce, I’m not buying anymore lettuce!

dressing ingredients

Dressing made yesterday. Ingredients pulled from fridge in under a minute.

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp unground sea salt
• 2 TB sun-dried tomatoes, canned in olive oil
• 2 TB fresh basil
• 2 TB fresh parsley
• 3 fresh rosemary needles
• 4 fresh thyme leaves
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dry oregano
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• pinch of red pepper flakes

I like having the fast, easy recipes of the Ridiculously Big Salad book in my pocket when I need them, but given I spend so much less time in the kitchen generally, sometimes I’m willing to do a bit more work.

My dressing is quite a bit more complex than Amanda’s recipes, but that’s why I make a 4-day batch at once.

Method

Greens chopped and tossed in some dressing. Meat and cheese sliced and added to bowl. Pickle sliced, olives added. More dressing drizzled over top. 5-10 minutes to prepare dinner!

1. Add garlic and salt to a mortar and pestle and process until it forms a paste.
2. Add tomatoes and grind briefly just to to mix the oil in.
3. Add all the fresh herbs and grind until it’s a relatively homogenous paste (rosemary just has to be broken in half, not ground all the way up).
4. Scrape into pint-size jar and add 1 cup extra virgin olive oil right away to let the flavors infuse into the oil before continuing.
5. Add cheese, vinegar, oregano and both peppers.
6. Cap and store on counter so flavors will continue to infuse.

Note that this dressing doesn’t refrigerate well; the olive oil will solidify. If you want to refrigerate it, then take it out a half hour early so the olive oil melts.

Also, it’s not emulsified, so will need to be shaken just before use.