Antipasto Board with Homemade Marinated Mushrooms

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

An Italian-American antipasto platter built on a simple shopping ratio — 2 ounces each of cured meat, cheese, and marinated vegetables per person — so you can scale it for four people or fourteen without guessing. The only thing you actually cook is a skillet of garlicky marinated mushrooms, which spend 20 minutes soaking up lemon, chili, and good olive oil and end up tasting better than anything from the deli case. Everything else is arranging.

Ingredients

• 12 oz cremini mushrooms, halved (quartered if large)
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tsp lemon zest

• 4 oz thinly sliced prosciutto di Parma
• 4 oz soppressata or Genoa salami, sliced
• 4 oz hot or sweet capocollo, sliced

• 4 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano, broken into shards
• 4 oz fresh mozzarella pearls or bocconcini, drained
• 4 oz provolone piccante or Asiago, cubed

• 6 oz jarred roasted red peppers, drained and torn into strips
• 3 oz marinated artichoke hearts, drained
• 3 oz giardiniera or pepperoncini, drained
• 1 cup mixed olives (Castelvetrano and Kalamata)

• 1 loaf crusty ciabatta or focaccia, sliced
• 4 oz breadsticks or taralli
• 1/2 cup Marcona almonds
• 1/4 cup fig jam or honey
• fresh basil leaves, for garnish
• flaky sea salt and coarse black pepper

Instructions

1. Make the mushrooms first so they have time to marinate. Wipe the creminis clean with a damp towel (don't soak them) and halve or quarter them so all pieces are roughly bite-size.
2. Heat the 1/3 cup olive oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 60 to 90 seconds, just until the garlic smells sweet and turns pale gold at the edges — do not let it brown.
3. Add the mushrooms, thyme sprigs, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Raise the heat to medium-high and cook 6 to 8 minutes, stirring every minute or so, until the mushrooms have released their liquid, it has cooked off, and they are glossy and lightly browned.
4. Off the heat, stir in the red wine vinegar and lemon juice — it will sizzle. Scrape everything, oil included, into a bowl. Let cool 20 minutes at room temperature, then stir in the parsley and lemon zest and discard the thyme stems. Taste and add salt or another splash of vinegar; the marinade should be sharp enough to make you blink.
5. While the mushrooms cool, take all the cheese out of the refrigerator and unwrap it. Cured meat and cheese need 40 to 45 minutes at room temperature to taste like anything — cold fat is flavorless. Leave the mozzarella pearls in the fridge until the last 15 minutes.
6. Prep the meats. Fold the prosciutto slices loosely into ribbons rather than laying them flat (air makes it easier to pick up). Fold the salami and capocollo slices in half, then in half again, and stack them into short overlapping rows or arrange them in loose rosettes.
7. Break the Parmigiano into irregular shards with the tip of a paring knife rather than slicing it, cube the provolone, and drain the mozzarella well on a paper towel so it doesn't weep across the board.
8. Drain the peppers, artichokes, and giardiniera thoroughly — pat them dry — and put any wet items into small bowls or ramekins. Set 2 or 3 of those bowls plus the fig jam onto a large board or platter first; they anchor the layout.
9. Build outward from the bowls: place the three cheeses in separate zones, then fill the space between with the folded meats, alternating so no two similar colors touch. Spoon the marinated mushrooms into a shallow bowl or nestle them directly on the board with some of their oil.
10. Fill every remaining gap with olives, almonds, and breadsticks so no bare board shows. Tuck basil leaves into the seams, shower the mozzarella and Parmigiano with flaky salt and coarse black pepper, and serve the sliced bread alongside in a separate basket so it stays out of the marinade.
11. Serve at room temperature. If the board sits longer than 2 hours, pull it, refrigerate the meats and cheeses, and rebuild fresh — antipasto is meant to be re-plated, not revived.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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