North End Italian Cookbook Antipasta Salad

Why The North End Italian Cookbook?

My wife just got back from visiting her mother, Nonni. She brought back a cook book. My wife's family is Italian. So is the cookbook. As it turns out, this is a well know cookbook. You can still find it on Amazon . It's author Marguerite DiMino Buonopane is well known for her recipes. They are authentic Italian Cuisine. Use any of the links above to read about her.  I like Italian food. I especially like Nonni's Italian food. So I thought I'd make every dish in this cookbook.

Changes In Recipes

I don't always have thinly sliced Genoa salami. Sometimes I just have plain old salami. And even other times I have honey ham.  I'm also a gardener. So I usually have fresh grown grape tomatoes available.  I don't want to get bent out of shape because I don't have an ingredient.  So what I'll do during this process is substitute.  I maybe use beef when something calls for veal.  I may use fresh tabasco peppers rather than tabasco sauce. Forgive me if you ever read this Margauerite. I wasn't trying to improve your recipe.  I was just trying to do the same thing you did.  Cook some food using what I had on hand, and that people would enjoy.  The Antipasto Salad Platter on page one seemed like a good place to start.

Antipasto Salad Platter

Cheryl has always raved about antipasto salad. It must be the Italian equivalent to a slab of ribs. So I
followed the recipe as close as possible.  Then added some of my own stuff.  When possible, I refer to ingredients in a 'general' manner. I add ingredients according to my taste buds. If I like something a lot, I put a lot in. If I don't like it...I may even cut it out. If  the recipe calls for exact measurements, that means I think it's important. (like the salad dressing for example)

Ingredients

• a pile of romaine lettuce, washed drained an trimmed into bite size pieces. Enough of it to cover the platter. 
• some red and green bell peppers, sliced thin
• some mushrooms, washed, cleaned, and sliced
• a can of chickpeas
• some thinly sliced Genoa salami
• some small black olives
• some tomatoes cut in wedges
• some thin onion slices

Put the lettuce on the bottom of the platter. Add the other ingredients to the top.  I do it in layers. That way I can see if I've covered all the areas with enough stuff. 

Salad Dressing

• 1/2 cup olive or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tablespoon snipped fresh basic leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried basil

Combine all the ingredients in a jar. Put the lid on it. Shake it up. Pour it onto the antipasto, trying to make sure you get it over all the leaves

My Substitutions

• I had just picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes.  I also had a lot of various types of sweet peppers. So I cut them up and put them in this recipe as well. 

Here's some pictures of what it looked like while being created.

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About Potato Chip Sandwich

According to some people, men can't tell time, can't follow directions and can't cook. That's simply not true. The owner and author of the site, me.. Stan Bush can cook. This site is simply a way for me to keep up with my recipes without putting it into my other 10 or so blogs. Everything is Google-ized, so it's connected to all my other stuff. This site gets it's name from road trips when I was in my 20's. By the time we would head home all we could afford was a loaf of bread and some potato chips.