An antipasto platter includes a variety of cured meats, cheeses, and pickled vegetables—these full-flavored and hearty ingredients should be perfect attributes for a main-course pasta salad. Too bad so many recipes end up greasy and heavy, with lackluster dressing and not enough flavor in the pasta itself. Here’s what we discovered:
Test Kitchen Discoveries
Quickly cooking the meats in the microwave prevents the salad from becoming greasy.
Tasters preferred strong aged provolone cheese to milder cheeses, especially when grated into the salad for even distribution.
We tossed in roasted red peppers for sweetness, pepperoncini for heat, and homemade marinated mushrooms for earthy flavor.
Since the meats and cheeses are so rich, we used a 2-to-1 ratio of vinegar to oil and added some vinegary brine from the pepperoncini for extra sharpness.
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