For the national cuisine of Europeans, snacks are traditional, which are served before the main course with aperitifs. For Italians, for whom pasta is the decoration of any lunch or dinner, such a preliminary dish is "antipasti" or "antipasto" - vegetable, meat, cheese snacks, which are served at the beginning of lunch with a glass of grappa - grape vodka.
Antipasti is not just meat and cheese cuts, garnished with vegetables. This is, as a rule, a set of hot and cold dishes designed to whet the appetite not only with their aroma and taste, but also simply with their appearance. The decoration of a tray or large antipasti dish plays an important role in serving. As a complement to it, fresh bread of different varieties, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar are always served.
Very often you can see sun-dried tomatoes on the antipasti dish, without which it is generally difficult to imagine Italian cuisine. They are served marinated with garlic and basil in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, finely chopped and mixed with butter for toasted bread sandwiches. Pieces of sun-dried tomatoes are very tasty, laid out on chopped cheese and sprinkled with chopped garlic.
Popular antipasti are tomatoes with soft mozzarella cheese, decorated with green basil leaves - a dish in the colors of the Italian flag. Natural additions to it are olives and olives, without which no antipasti plate can do.
From meat delicacies, as an appetizer before pasta, you will be offered slicing of Parma ham, raw smoked sausages, bacon, carpaccio. Of course, it will not do without cheeses of various varieties. They will also be served with baked and raw vegetables, fresh herbs and even seafood. Baked small peppers of different colors, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, will whet your appetite even if you ate half an hour ago.
Usually in the antipasti there are 6-7 various dishes and products, sometimes this amount reaches 15-20. You can imagine how many interesting, original and mouth-watering flavor combinations can be made from such a great set!