THE APRON GAL

This past weekend I hosted a "Paninis and Pop" party.
(Don't worry, photos to come!)

I took that theme in an Italian direction and I wanted some great Italian finger foods. I loved the idea and flavor of an antipasto platter. Antipasto literally means "before the meal" in Italian and usually consists of a platter filled with cured meats, olives, cheeses, garlic etc.

Unfortunately, a platter style appetizer didn't appeal to me for two reasons:

 1. We were having a platter style main course of paninis 

and 

2. I am convinced people eat more than they normally 

would when food is presented this way.

So the perfect solution was to take the great flavors of an antipasto platter and serve them on skewers! This appetizer is perfect because of its fun colors, easy handling and combination of flavors.

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I made my skewers with black olives, pepperoni, salami and cheese filled tortellinis. You could also add green olives, peperocinis or omit the pepperoni for only salami, etc. You can decide your perfect combination. 

 After eating a few of these, I think my favorite combination was black olive, salami and tortellini. Having both the salami and pepperoni seemed like a lot of meat, so I think I would make some with just salami and some with both!

I piled these high on a small platter and thought they looked so cute!

Antipasto Skewers

adapted from Taste of Home Appetizers

Makes 40 skewers

Ingredients

1 package (9 ounces) refrigerated cheese tortellini

40 large pitted black olives

*40 green olives

3/4 cup Italian salad dressing

20 thin slices pepperoni, halved

20 thin slices hard salami, halved

(additional ingredients if desired: peperocinis, cheese cubes, roasted garlic, etc.)

Directions

Cook tortellini according to package instructions, drain and rinse in cold water. 

In a ziploc bag or sealed container, combine the tortellini, olives and salad dressing. Seal and let refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. 

Drain and discard dressing. For each appetizer, thread an olive, folded pepperoni slice, tortellini, folded salami piece (and additional olive, if desired) onto a toothpick or short skewer.

** Cook's note: Since I don't love green olives, I used 2 cans of black olives and omitted the green olives. Feel free to use both, or either one!

Enjoy!