When asked to bring a food item to a holiday party or other gathering, it is always nice to have a “go to” dish that you know will be a hit. The Raffaele Family-style Antipasto is my weapon of choice. It is a dish that my family, to this day, starts every family dinner with but for others the Family Style Antipasto is received as a special treat. I have decided to share this recipe and let everyone see how easy it really is. A 1/2 hour of prep and a 1/2 hour of configuration and you will put on quite a show. Try it at your next party and I promise folks will enjoy it.

Keep in mind that this recipe is just a guide. Since I tend to wing things in the kitchen, these measurements are only rough estimates. Have some fun with it. It is almost impossible to mess up.

(Thanks to this guy for lending me this picture. Though mine does not look quit like this, I thought it set the mood nicely.)

Raffaele Family Style Antipasto

Ingredients

Tomato Salad
8 – 10 Vine Ripe Tomatoes (Cut them to bit sized pieces that can be eaten with a fork. Not too small. This is not salsa)
Chunk of your favorite Mozzarella Cheese diced
1/2 Cup Freshed Basil chopped
1-2 Cloves of Garlic chopped fine
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup of Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper  to taste

Main Ingredients (All of these can be found in your local grocery store. For the bottled items, I recommend Pastene, but use others if you would like)
12 oz. Bottle Pepperocini drained
2 12 oz. Bottle Giardiniera (Pickled Vegetables) drained
1 Roasted Red Pepper sliced
2 1oz. Marinated Artichokes drained
Assortment of your favorite olives
1/2 lb. Sharp Provolone Cheese cut in small finger food chunks
1/2 lb Genoa Salami
1/2 lb. Prosciutto

Optional Incredients (These are just other things I have seen on an Antipasto. Be as creative as you want here.)
Anchovies
Marinated Mushrooms
Sun Dried Tomotoes

Preparation
A few hours or the night before you need to serve the dish, combine all of the ingredients for the tomato salad in a bowl, cover it, and put it in the fridge. Every once in a while use a large spoon to turn the ingredients in order to allow the liquid to soak into all of the ingredients. Over time the vinegar (which tends to break things down over time) does some work on the other ingredients and the flavors really begin to blend together to produce a very flavorful salad. Continue to turn the ingredients until it is tie to plate the full dish.

Even though the next step in preparation could be done a few hours in advance, I prefer to put things together right before serving because I think the ingredients remain more fresh and the marinated items do not have a chance to take over the flavors of the other ingredients.

In order to plate this, you will need a large flat platter or serving plate. The first things I layout are the meat and cheese. I roll each piece of salami and prosciutto into a tube. I then alternate a piece of salami, a piece of prosciutti, and a piece of cheese to make a ring around the outside of the plate. Next I use a large slotted (you do not want to make you plate all soupy) spoon to create a pile in the middle of the plate with the tomato salad . Now, you should have space remaining on the plate between the meat/cheese and the tomato salad. This space will be filled up with the remaining incredients. I usually layer them in this order: (Giardiniera, Artichokes, Olives, Roasted Pepper) Once layered, it is ready to impress. Just throw it on the table, stick a couple of big serving spoons into it, and you should be able to keep a good sized dinner party at bay until the main course is served.

Enjoy.

There are certain family recipes that are handed from GrandMothers to Mothers to Children for hundreds of years. They are the recipes that make a family take a step back and remember what it used to be like and that good food is good food no matter what century it is made in.

This is a recipe that has been passed down to everyone in my family. It is something I grew up eating 3 times a week. A fresh batch was made every Sunday morning and we had left overs twice throughout the week. It is a staple from my childhood and now that I make it for myself, it is something that I cherish even more.

If Jennie & Angelo Raffaele  (my grand parents in the picture above) were writing this, they would say to you,  “You look skinny. Manga! Manga!“.

Enjoy and let me know how it goes!

Meat Balls:

• 2 slices of Italian bread
• add 2 x-large eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• ~4 tbsp grated romano cheese
• 1 1/3 lbs hamburger (75-85% fat)
• Chunk of salt pork or fatback. You can use oil but the salt pork adds more flavor. Ask the meat guy at the grocery store and he will hook you up with this.
• Optional – Pork Ribs, Italian Sausages, Steak, etc. – Vegetarian? Try chunks of eggplant.

Sauce:

• 2 Tbsp Chopped Yellow Onion
• 1 chopped clove of garlic. I usually add another 2 cloves just to up the ante.
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1 tomato past can of water
• 1 35oz. can of Italian Plum tomatoes, hand mashed or quickly blended
• 1Tsp Salt

Directions:

1. Dry bread overnight in bowl on kitchen counter. In the morning break bread into small pieces. Wet pieces with water to soften and drain off excess water.
2. In a large bowl combine eggs, bread, salt, garlic powder, Romano cheese and mix well with a fork or roll up your sleeves and use your hands.
3. Add hamburger meat and mix well with hands until ingredients are distributed evenly.
4. Form meatballs. Meatballs should be a little smaller than a racket ball in size…or at least that’s how we liked them. If they are too large the sauce will not be able to penetrate throughout the entire meatball.
5. Render salt pork in a frying pan. Cast iron pans work the best because they hold and distribute heat so well.
6. Fry the meatballs on 3 or 4 sides over medium heat. You are just trying to brown the meatballs, not cook them all the way through. Do not skip this step. Browning the meat gives the sauce a much deeper flavor and rich color.
7. Remove the browned meatballs from the pan and let them sit on a dish for now.
8. If you decide to use additional meat in the sauce, repeat the browning step, in the same pan, for each piece of meat. I add sausages at a minimum and am always on the look out for some nice pork ribs. The flavor they bring to the sauce is just unreal.
9. Add onions to pan and cook until translucent.
10. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Make sure you do not over cook or brown the garlic.
11. Add the tomato past and stir to dry up all the grease in the pan.
12. Add the water and mix well. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate all of the goodness left behind from the meat browning process.
13. Add the contents of the frying pan and plum tomatoes to a 4-5 qt stock pot.
14. Add salt, meat, and juice from the dish where you had the meat resting to the stock pot. The pan may seem like it is too crowded at this point but don’t worry. As the sauce cooks, the components will break down and the meat will shrink. You can also add another can of water if you want more liquid.
15. Cook for a minimum of 3 hours on low heat and stir every 15 minutes or so. This is where patience comes into play. 3 hours may seem like a long time, but any shorter and the sauce will not have time to meld with the meat. I usually cook it for 4 hours just to be safe.
16. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
17. Eat! Cook up you favorite pasta and enjoy. For an added touch, try putting a spoonful of Ricotta cheese in your dish. This was always a special treat for my family.
18. Freeze any leftovers you may have. This can be quickly microwaved and makes a great mid-week meal.