Meat Based Antipasti

Classic Italian Meat Antipasti: Some things you will find in much of the land.

There's no getting around it, sausages and eggs (and potatoes) go very well together. But they are not breakfast food in Italy. Rather, this sausage and potato frittata is the sort of thing one might serve as an antipasto in a buffet, with other kinds of frittata and other foods, or at a light lunch. It will also be a tasty picnic food.

Rich, zesty crostini made with chicken livers and spleen, seasoned with lemon.

The combination of anchovies and chicken livers isn't as odd as one might think. Indeed, the two work quite nicely in this simple antipasto.

Crostini are thin slices of toasted bread, spread with a paté of one sort or another, and are a standard Tuscan antipasto. The most common paté is made with chicken livers, but here Artusi adds anchovies, which bring not fishiness, but the bracing freshness of the sea. In short, a nice touch. His recipe is very simple.

The tart sweetness of dried apricots beautifully compliments the saltiness of prosciutto in this antipasto, which is also a good party food.

Chicken and Ham Mousse, or Mousse di Pollo e Prosciutto Cotto: An elegant dish to serve during a formal meal, or perhaps at a nice party.

No festive Tuscan meal would be complete without chicken liver crostini, thin slices of toasted bread spread with a tasty chicken liver pate that even makes converts out of liver haters.

Tasty chicken salad with apples: a perfect antipasto.

Crostini are thin slices of toasted bread, spread with a paté of one sort or another, and are a standart Tuscan antipasto. The most common paté is made with chicken livers, but in Siena they also add spleen, which adds a nice touch. This recipe si drawn from Salan's Re Dei Cuochi, published anonymously in 1885.

Though spleen isn't easy to come by any more, it is very nice in this pate to spread over crostini.

It is traditional in Italy to serve cotechino, a rich, gelatinous pork sausage that also includes pork rinds, with lentils, especially on New Year's Eve, when the lentils augur good fortune for the coming year. This is a tasty variation Wife E whipped up, and it makes a welcome addition to a platter of mixed crostini. We didn't take notes while...

A hearty salami-and-onion frittata that would have been a main course dish in the past, and still could be today with a good salad. Or an antipasto

This is a garlicky wonder that may well be Ligurian or Piemontese. It is something of a cholesterol bomb, but won't do you any harm if you partake in moderation. Also, it is quick, easy, and tasty, and will certainly help keep winter's chill at bay.

A casserole made with bread, milk, ham, and sundried tomatoes, by Sharon Sanders, which will work equally well as an antipasto or at a picnic.

A recipe from Artusi, who begins pithily: "Those who lack a good pair of arms had best give this pie a wide berth, as the dryness of the meats involved, combined with their boniness, require a daunting amount of effort to extract all the flavor possible. Without it, the results wouldn't be worthwhile. What I will describe below was prepared in my presence, using the following ingredients; if you feel you must adjust them, you'd be better off passing upon the recipe and thus saving your money."

These cheesy mortadella fritters will work nicely as part of a platter of mixed fried meats, but will also be nice in a mixed antipasto platter, or as party food.

Mortadella Mousse, Mousse di Mortadella: For those who have never had it, mortadella di Bologna, the ancestor of the bologna made in the US, is a cooked pork sausage made from pork ground fine in a mortar (hence the Italian name) with spices and cubes of fat. It's extremely versatile, and though it is excellent in sandwiches, it's also a superb ingredient, and stars in this antipasto or party dip.

Panadas, or Impanadas, are meat pies, and one of Sardinia's signature dishes, reaching back -- it is said -- into prehistory. As is the case with regional favorites, these is considerable variation in size and filling. Here we have fairly small Sardinian panadas with a meat filling.

Simple cocktail food, which will also work nicely at the beginning of a meal.

Depending upon the number and appetites of your diners, you may or may not have leftovers if you roast a chicken. If you do, roast chicken is an excellent base from which to make this chicken loaf. It will be perfect for a luncheon, and also a pleasant antipasto. You could also use other roasted white meats, for example rabbit of turkey.

A quick presentation of meatballs, baked, and the classic Italian presentation: As a second course (no pasta), with a glass of wine. Of course, if you want spaghetti with meatballs, these will be good there too.

This is a delicate spread for crostini, made with prosciutto cotto -- cooked ham. It will also be a nice dip at parties.

Raw Meat, or Carne Cruda: In other parts of the world finely minced raw beef is called steak tartare, and they crack an egg into it. In Piemonte they don't, preferring lemon juice and olive oil, and you should try this even if you think you don't like raw meat, as it can be a rare treat indeed.

I must confess, I rarely have leftover roast beef -- when we make it, it invariably disappears, leaving us to wonder what happened to it. However, should you be lucky enough to have some, this roast beef and hard-boiled egg salad will make for a pleasant and slightly different luncheon dish. Served in smaller portions, it will also be a nice antipasto.

Sautéed Olives, or Olive Soffritte: Lise has an olive tree and wants to know what to do with the olives. Fresh from the tree, they are tremendously bitter, to the point that the people who originally went to the trouble of learning how to treat them must have been extraordinarily hungry. To draw out the bitterness you'll have to soak them, either in brine or lye. These are Calabrian, and are traditionally done with black olives that are harvested and left to dry in the sun. You'll need:

Spiedini are Italian kebabs, and as is true with all things Italian, they come in tremendous variety. These Spiedini are quite simple, and pack a zesty punch that will make them a welcome addition to a platter of mixed Spiedini. These chicken spiedini will also be a pleasant, if slightly unusual (for Italy) antipasto.

La Tartara, steak tartare in English, is finely chopped deftly seasoned raw beef, and though it is often associated with French bistros, it has long been enjoyed in Italy too.

La Tartara, steak tartare in English, is finely chopped nicely seasoned raw beef, and though it is often associated with French bistros, it has long been enjoyed in Italy too.

Though steak tartare is often associated with the French, it is also quite popular in Italy, where people often make it not with egg yolk, which poses a risk of salmonella, but rather olive oil, which is just as effective at moistening the meat, and is also lower in cholesterol. This recipe also contains orange juice, which adds a pleasant touch.

Animelle, or sweetbreads, can be either the thymus or the pancreas of a young animal. In other words, offal, and they appear much more often in older recipes than they do today, perhaps because in the past foods were precious enough that nothing was allowed to go to waste. Or perhaps simply because our ancestors knew how good sweetbreads are.

Woodcock are very difficult to find today, so this is something of a historical curiosity. However, Aldo Santini says that if your favorite restaurateur calls to tell you he's come across some and is making woodcock crostini, you should drop everything -- business, family or lover -- and run. "They're well worth an argument." This is Artusi's recipe, which closely matches the recipe in Salani's Il Re dei Cuochi (Anonymously published in 1885).