I really enjoyed our antipasto platter with a Soave wine at our last food and wine dinner. So I thought I would share it with you. The platter was an array of grilled foods, cheeses, salami and pepperoni. Amazingly the wine was perfect with everything. Soave is a very popular dry, crisp, fruity white Italian wine from the Veneto region in northeast Italy.
The grilled foods included roasted red peppers, marinated portabella mushrooms, paprika and lime marinated summer squash and roasted eggplant basted with spicy tomato sauce, and light soy sauce and olive oil marinated asparagus wrapped with prosciutto.
The cheeses included goat cheese and a mild sheep cheese.
For the red peppers, lightly rub olive oil over the skin side of the red pepper. Grill until charred all the way around. Place into a paper bag for 5-10 minutes. The skins will be very easy to remove. Slice pepper into small strips
For the marinated mushrooms, remove the gills from two portabella and rub each with one tablespoons Italian dressing, salt and pepper. Grill on medium high heat stem side up for about 5-7 minutes. Don’t overcook the mushrooms, they will lose their texture and become soggy.
For the squash, mix 2 teaspoons paprika, juice from one lime, pinch of salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Slice 1 medium yellow squash and 1 medium zucchini lengthwise about 1/2 inch thick. Rub squash with olive oil, add paprika mixture and grill until slightly tender.
For the eggplant, combine 1 can tomato paste with ¼ cup beef broth and pinch cayenne pepper. Slice the eggplant lengthwise and marinate for at least 2 hours with the tomato mixture. Grill on medium heat about 2-3 minutes each side.
For the asparagus, marinate about 30 medium size spears in low salt soy sauce and juice from one lime for about 1 hour. Place into microwave and cook about 2 minutes being careful not to overcook. Wrap 3 spears with a slice of prosciutto and grill until prosciutto is slightly crisp.
Grill the vegetables on medium high heat unless otherwise noted, being careful not to overcook.