Easy Antipasto Salad for Parties (Viral Recipe)

Recipe: Antipasto Salad Recipe »

This Antipasto salad was made famous recently on social media when it was brought to a 4th of July party. Made with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, salami and pickles, this is a spectacular way to serve up a party starter. If you're looking for something delicious to bring to a party that will impress but is still simple, try this antipasto salad!

About This Antipasto Salad

This antipasto salad is so delicious and so easy, it's barely a recipe and yet I wanted to share it with you because it's so good. It's the perfect thing to bring to a party and looks spectacular but is easy to put together in less than 10 minutes. With fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, salami and pickles it looks like you ordered it from a fancy deli. It's basically a Caprese salad with salami but I love the way this is put together.

A couple of weeks ago, a TikTok user Nicole from @folkmedicineremedies posted a teary video. She had brought this antipasto salad to a party. She was invited as a friend of a friend and was treated badly by the home owners Stasia and Jake Hicks. She showed the antipasto salad that she had made and it looked so mouthwateringly delicious that most people agreed that if anyone, like ANYONE turned up to their house carrying that, not only would they be welcomed in, but they would also become a fast friend. I couldn't stop thinking about this salad even though it's winter and tomatoes aren't really in season. And then I made it and holy heavens, it is utterly delicious. This is what I will be bringing to parties from now on!

Ingredients For Antipasto Salad

• Mozzarella balls - you want fresh and not dry mozzarella for this. Fresh mozzarella is stored and sold in brine.
• Tomatoes - look for large, ripe tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes work very well in this.
• Salami - I use a mix of mild and hot salami just to cover bases for people that can eat spicy vs not.

• Aged balsamic vinegar - my friend gifted me an aged balsamic vinegar which is very different in texture from regular balsamic vinegar as it is sticky and viscous like a syrup due to the ageing. If you don't have this try a balsamic glaze which is what Nicole used.
• Extra virgin olive oil - use extra virgin olive oil for this, not virgin or pure olive oil (always choose extra virgin olive oil especially when using on salads).
• Basil - we want fresh basil leaves for this.
• Olives - I happened to have some tiny olives but use your favourite olives.
• Pickles - I use hot peppers or whatever pickles I happen to have on me. Pickled fennel, pickled celery or pickled capsicum works really well.

Tips For Making Antipasto Salad

1 - Nicole has a farm where she grows a lot of produce and so she used home grown tomatoes and made her own mozzarella. So you can imagine how special this antipasto salad was. But I have yet to start the journey of making my own mozz and it's not summer time so we don't have any tomatoes in our garden so this recipe is using bought mozzarella and tomatoes. I give the weights for all of these items so that it will look exactly like the one shown and serves 6 people. You can easily scale this up or down depending on how many people you want to serve.

2 - Salt and pepper is your best friend when it comes to tomatoes. Make sure to season the tomatoes well before adding them to the tray.

3 - You can play around with the salamis. There are some really interesting ones using squid ink, pistachios and ones made with wild boar at the deli. You only need around 225g/8ozs of sliced salami for the whole platter. Try some fancy ones too if you're trying to impress. But even if you only have basics salami this will still be really good.

4 - This antipasto salad can be served at room temperature and enjoyed for a few hours out of the fridge.

5 - If you have any leftover salami or want another way of serving it up, try this salami rose charcuterie platter!

6 - Serve this with some freshly baked focaccia or as is!

Antipasto Salad Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott, adapted from @folkmedicineremedies

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

Serves: 6 people

Ingredients Needed

• 1 medium foil tray (32x26x4cms/12x10x1.5 inches)
• 2x large tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• 2x 200g/7ozs fresh mozzarella balls
• 140g/4.9ozs mild salami (like a Danish)
• 75g/2.6ozs hot salami (I used a Korean salami from the Italian deli)
• 6 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar (or balsamic glaze)
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 bunch basil
• 150g/5ozs hot pepper pickles
• 150g/5ozs olives

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - Slice the tomatoes into 5 slices and season well with salt and pepper. Then drain the mozzarella balls and slice up into 5 slices. Layer the tomato, then mozzarella and a couple of basil leaves. Nicole adds a slice of salami too although I didn't just in case a vegetarian wanted some of the salad. Repeat until you have two rows of the tomato and mozzarella on the middle and right hand side of the tray.

Step 2 - Then fold over the salami in halves or quarters and line up on the left hand side of the tray. Fill the bottom of the tray with pickles and olives. Take the aged balsamic vinegar and drizzle over the salad and then drizzle with olive oil. Chiffonade (slice finely) 5 extra basil leaves and scatter on top. Season with more salt and black pepper.

Personal Note

I don't know any of these people but it seems to be an ongoing drama that I am invested in. Nicole seems like a really lovely woman and we can all relate to the nervous feeling of walking into a party without knowing anyone. It doesn't help that the Hicks's seem to be doubling down. They were defensive and called the party a "gathering" which seems like semantics to me. Their main issue is that they were saying that she wasn't invited but she was, just not by them and by a mutual friend. Stasia has lost her job and has now started a Gofundme.

There is one mystery that remains to be seen. Nicole ended up leaving the party early and leaving behind the antipasto salad. And we all want to know what they thought of it! Did they try it and recognise the simple genius of this idea? Or did they throw it out or leave it untouched? It's a moving drama y'all!

So tell me Dear Reader, had you heard of the antipasto salad drama? Would you be happy if someone turned up at your door with this?