Antipasto Night

When I say "stop by for a drink", that means "make sure you haven't eaten all day and come hungry". I had my sister and her husband coming for a glass of wine Friday evening, and I didn't feel like heating the house by using the stove/oven, so prepared some appetizers from ingredients that I had in the cupboard & fridge.

I served some light antipasto consisting of the following:



*Roasted red peppers
*Assorted olives
*Marinated artichokes from Italy (from a jar)
*Speck (smoked Italian prosciutto....so good!)
*Sliced baguette, toasted w/ olive oil & herbs de provence
*Caprese Salad (the stolen tomatoes from neighbor's plant, see Tomato Envy post) w/ fresh bufala mozzarella & basil leaves, drizzled just w/ extra virgin olive oil
*Marinated Ceci (chickpea) Salad, recipe to follow
*Mexican Shrimp Cocktail
*Sushi (the only thing that I purchased besides the bread)

Marinated Ceci Salad:
Recipe adapted from Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking

Ceci di Siciliani:

2 cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed & drained
1/2 cup celery, very finely sliced
1/4 red onion minced.
1 jalapeno pepper minced (I didn't have one, so used a dash of hot red pepper flakes)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
6 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white or champagne vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, let stand at room temperature till ready to serve.
I made this in the a.m. and it was perfect by 7 p.m.


Mexican Shrimp Cocktail (courtesy of Food & Wine)

1 1/4 pounds shelled and deveined medium shrimp, cooked and kept chilled
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons drained prepared horseradish
1 large Hass avocado, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Toss all ingredients lightly, right before serving. This is an interesting way to serve shrimp cocktail. I have made it twice, and I reduced the ketchup the second time and added more avocado.