Antipasti

At first I thought antipasto meant before the pasta because I always thought of Italian cooking as all about pasta. But I was wrong! Dead wrong! Antipasto means before the entire meal- but if I had it my way I say antipasto means before the feast because Italian cooking is way more than just pasta. So, to start off I will introduce you with some of the antipasto that I have prepared over the last few months.

What I like most about antipasto is how it titillates your pallet and gets you ready for the rest of the meal. This is the purpose that it has to serve -nothing more and nothing less. An antipasto fails if it creates too much contrast to the entire meal. I say this because I believe there should be harmony in your dinner table all the time- you should not end your evening saying I liked the chicken but I hate the pork or leaving the table asking what you had for antipasto. The antipasto is like the setting of a play or the introduction in a novel. It will set the mood for the entire meal but not overpower the other dishes. It should leave you eager, but not hungry, for the next dish.

In Italy the antipasto can be made from fresh veggies tossed in olive oil. It can also be composed of cured meat with a complimenting cheese. Its range of flavor is endless- from salty, sour, savoury, meaty, fishy, sweet...etc. The most important thing to remember about preparing antipasto is to use only fresh ingredients. Although this is true for any part of the meal it is most important to antipasto because most of these dishes require very little to sometimes no cooking at all. This means that the range of flavour I mentioned above comes from the natural flavor of the ingredients and not some clever "french-inspired" manipulation of the dish to create some out of this world flavor.