Anti-pasta light supper or party platters is in your fridge

Here is a recipe to get started. Pick and choose your favorties.

1/2 lb deli ham or smoked turkey, thin sliced into strips

1/4 lb genoa salami, thin sliced into strips

1/4 lb pepperoni

1 cans black olives, drained

1 can green olives, drained

1/2 jar pepperoncini

1 jar artichoke hearts drained, quartered

½ lb mozerella balls

1/4 lb smoked provolone, cut into bite size pieces

2 stalks of celery, peeled and sliced

1 carrot cut into rounds

1 bell pepper sliced into strips

Starter dishes to share.

Anti-pasta or Anti-pasto is usually served on a platter, the first course before the pasta course at the Italian table. In the summer, it becomes a main dish at our house. Make it your own by selecting your family's favorite meats and cheeses.

Pick 2 or 3 meats, 2 or 3 pickled vegetables, a variety of olives, cheeses and fresh baby vegetables*.

Choose all your favorite anti-pasta ingredients. Chop them up and toss them with a little lemon and olive oil or Italian dressing. Add some chopped lettuce, chard or kale to lighten up the anti-pasta mix.

Hate pepperoni? Choose smoked turkey. My family thinks artichoke hearts are manditory on the menu. Your family may insist on mozzarella pearls.

Go from an appetizer tray to a green salad plate while you assemble the ingredients. Serve the tidbits on a platter or, top a lettuce salad, or mix it with cooked rice or pasta.

For a more substantial meal - Once you have all your ingredients together for the anti-pasta salad, stir the same ingredients into two cups of cooked rice or pasta. Add sliced or quartered hard-boiled eggs.

Dressing - Drizzle with olive oil and herb vinegar,* or use bottled Italian dressing. A simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil. Try a few drops of balsamic vinegar to the mix.

By the time all these ingredients are collected, there will probably be enough ingredients to make Anti-pasta more than once. Fortunately, most of these ingredients can keep in the refrigerator. Fresh ingredients that must be purchased, picked or made the day this meal is prepared.

• Serve with fresh bread - a baguette, frocottia or Italian bread with a good olive oil. Or, serve bread sticks, crostinni, bruchetta.

• Serve with fresh garden vegetables - Add a platter of fresh garden vegetables cut into strips are served as dippers. You can't go wrong with sun warmed tomatoes, a big plate of sliced tomatoes, Insalada Caprese, bowl of marinated cherry tomatoes.

• Serve with grilled/roasted vegetables – zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, green onions, carrots, baby eggplants.
• baby vegetables such as baby carrots, baby bell peppers

Make more meals

Start collecting treats for the anti-pasta plate in your refrigerator. Got a jar of your favorite olives or pickles in the frig? Some peperoni, carrots, celery?

Taking the time to prepare this light and simple meal is made even more delicious if this combo of cured meats and cheeses will keep fresh in the refrigerator for weeks. Make this light, no-cooking meal a summer weekend special.

As flavors of this medley blend together, it just keeps getting better. (Make enough for the next day's lunch.) I can never get tired of this meal, because of all the ingredient combinations.

Make these anti-pasta tray additions a week or two before you plan to serve anti-pasta.

Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives

1 (10-ounce) jar large pitted green olives (about 24 olives)

3-4 cloves roasted garlic

1/4 cup blue cheese

Drain and remove olives from jar, reserving the brine. Set aside.

Mash roasted garlic cloves and blend into blue cheese. Stuff about ½ teaspoon of garlic blue cheese into each olive.

Return stuffed olives to the jar or store in a small shallow container in the reserved brine.

Roasted garlic stuffed olives

2 heads garlic
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 (10-ounce) jar large pitted green olives (about 24 olives)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place garlic heads on a sheet of aluminum foil,drizzle with olive oil. Completely cover and enclose the garlic. Bake for 20-25 minutes, larger garlic heads will require 25 minutes. Allow to completely cool before removing individual cloves.

Remove the cloves by gently squeezing the garlic cloves out of the papery skins. Use the most intact cloves to stuff olives.

If the olives were purchased already stuffed, remove the pimientos. Use the pimiento peppers and any remaining garlic cloves for another purpose. Empty and drain olive jar and reserve the brine.

Gently stuff each olive with a roasted garlic clove. Return stuffed olives to the jar or store in a small, covered shallow container. Add the brine back into the jar or container, completely covering the olives with the brine. Allow to marinate in the brine for at least 2 weeks before serving.

Bread and dipping oil

Roast garlic as above. Serve a little dish of roasted garlic cloves and olive oil along with baguette slices or crostinni. Season with salt, pepper, and finely chopped herbs.

*herb vinegars

Salad dressings are made of two basic ingredients, an acid such as lemon juice or herb vinegar and, an oil like olive oil, peanut oil, avocado oil.

Other elements may be added. Herbs, salt, pepper and garlic are often used. Mustard, cheeses, bacon are added often.

Two most popular acids in salad dressings are vinegar or lemon juice. The most popular oil is olive oil.

Herb vinegars are herb flavored vinegars such as apple cider vinegar, white or red wine vinegar, malt vinegar or rice wine vinegar.

Learn how to make:

• Homemade herb vinegars
• Making tarragon vinegar