How to Assemble An Italian Charcuterie Board For Entertaining
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An Italian Charcuterie Board (or any type of grazing board) filled with delicious finger foods is always great for a party or gathering. Whether that is during the holiday season or not, you can’t deny that a platter filled with a variety of meats, cheeses, fruits, and nuts is a GOOD thing!
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Italian Charcuterie Board
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. I highly recommend reading the blog post all the way through so that you don’t miss any tips or substitution suggestions; to ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required, and to understand the steps and timings involved.
One of my favorite things to do is to create charcuterie boards. They are such a versatile tray of absolute goodness. They are full of savory and sweet in a variety of textures and flavors.
If you are looking for a different way to serve holiday appetizers, then a charcuterie board made with a variety of meats, cheese, fruit, and nuts is what you are looking for!
What is a Charcuterie Board?
Essentially, it’s a platter—be it a wooden board, ceramic plate, or even tabletop, filled with a beautiful display of finger foods. You might also hear the term grazing board to describe the same thing.
The word charcuterie (pronounced shar-KOO-tər-ee), is a French term for a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Source: Wikipedia
The modern charcuterie board can be more than just meats—cheeses, nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, crudité, olives, seafood, dips, crackers like Pane Guttiau, a a Sardinian crispbread topped with olive oil, rosemary and salt, breads like Rosemary Focaccia, jams like our homemade vanilla fig jam, chutneys, and even sweets. But candy charcuterie is for another time!
I think the best way to create a board is to include foods from one region so that you know that the different items will complement each other.
This Italian charcuterie board is an excellent example of that. But you could follow the steps to make a grazing board of Spanish or French delicacies or produce from your local area.
Once you make your first charcuterie board, you’ll realise the most challenging part is choosing what to go on it, and the rest is really simple! I LOVE making them for parties.
Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe
You may already have some of the ingredients for this recipe – the full list with measurements is found in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Rather than a true “recipe,” this post serves as a guideline for constructing a delicious and attractive board featuring traditional Southern Italian antipasto ingredients.
For your convenience, any specialized or notable ingredients and equipment needed for this recipe have been listed below and linked to Amazon if available online.
These are the items used in the board featured in this post – but if you can’t source a particular element, don’t like something, or want to switch to something else – you totally can. You could visit a local Italian Deli and see what’s good!
Thanks to Wiki for the description of the various ingredients!
- Burrata Cheese – an Italian cow milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella, while the inside contains stracciatella and cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture
- Provolone Cheese – an Italian semi-hard cheese with taste varying greatly from provolone piccante (sharp, piquant), aged for a minimum of four months and with a very sharp taste, to provolone dolce (sweet) with a very mild taste.
- Hot Soppressata – an Italian dry salami, the hot version is likely to include chili.
- Sweet Soppressata – a milder, sweet version of the salami
- Ricotta Cheese – an Italian whey cheese made from sheep, cow, goat, or Italian water buffalo milk whey leftover from the production of other cheeses.
- Fig Jam – you can buy a jar, or you could make your own homemade vanilla fig jam which was made to go with this board.
- Walnuts – you could add other nuts too like almonds or pistachios.
- Roasted Red Peppers – it’s quicker and easier to buy these in a jar, but if you have a glut of peppers from your garden or the store you could roast and peel your own.
- Marinated and Seasoned Mixed Olives – obviously, go for Italian olives for this platter! You can serve the olives pitted or stoned. If it’s the latter, leave a dish out for the stones.
- Artichoke Hearts – packed in oil or water, and can be bought plain or seasoned.
- Fresh Figs
- Red Seedless Grapes
- Fresh Basil and Rosemary sprigs – these are for garnish
- Crusty Italian bread – make your own using a bread mix, or buy fresh on the morning of your gathering.
Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog use both cup measurements and/or weighted measurements. American cups and kitchen food scales are handy pieces of equipment to have in your kitchen as it means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog! I try to give American, imperial, and metric measurements in my recipes. You can mix cup measurements with weighted measurements, but never imperial (pounds, ounces, pints, etc.,) with metric (kilograms, grams, liters, etc.,).
What is the Best Board To Use for Charcuterie Boards?
So you may think that a charcuterie board needs to be presented on a wooden board, but that’s not really the case! I’ve served (and been served) them on slate, marble, ceramic, and glass.
Take a look at your trays and platters – I’m sure there are plenty you could use to display all of the Italian foods in this “recipe”.
There are really no hard and fast rules – use what you have, or invest in a good quality non-porous hardwood or bamboo board to use for charcuterie. Hardwoods such as olive, black walnut, teak, and acacia are best. Softwoods like oak or ash are not good to use as a charcuterie as they’re too porous and the oils and aromas will leak into the wood.
It doesn’t matter what shape you have – square, rectangle, round, or irregularly shaped, just keep the board you will use for serving meats and cheese, only for that purpose – don’t also use it as a chopping board!
As well as a board (or two) you will need small bowls for holding other ingredients like olives, or condiments. Small plates for guests to place their nibbles onto, cheese knives, as well as forks to eat with.
More Recipes For a Grazing Board
If you enjoy putting together grazing boards or charcuterie boards, here are some more recipes that would work well on your board:
- Maple Pumpkin Spice Trail Mix
- Roasted Rosemary & Chilli Almonds
- Easy Pear & Cranberry Chutney
- How To Set Up An Easy Cheese Board For A Dinner Party
More Italian Recipes
Looking for more Italian food inspo? Check these recipes out next:
- Italian Meatball Soup Recipe
- One-Pan Chicken Cacciatore – Italian Hunter’s Stew
- Rustic Wild Mushroom Risotto
How Do I Make an Italian Charcuterie Board?
Just check out the recipe card below with full ingredients, instructions, and demonstration photos. You can print the card out too (don’t worry, the pics don’t print to save your ink!).
Italian Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
- 1 large ball burrata cheese
- 4 oz / 100g Provolone cheese cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3 oz / 85g hot soppressata thinly sliced
- 3 oz / 85g sweet soppressata thinly sliced
- 4 fresh figs quartered
- 4 oz / 100g fresh ricotta cheese
- 3 Tbsp Fig Jam
- 3 Tbsp walnuts chopped
- 6 oz / 170g jar roasted red peppers sliced
- 4 oz / 100g marinated and seasoned mixed olives
- 1 8 oz / 225g jar artichoke hearts, drained
- 1 lb / 450g red seedless grapes split into 3 or 4 bunches
- Fresh basil and rosemary sprigs for garnish
- Crusty Italian bread thinly sliced
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Instructions
- Place the burrata in the center of a serving platter and arrange the Provolone cheese, soppressata, and fresh figs around it.
- Fill a small serving bowl with the ricotta cheese and top with the fig jam and walnuts and place near the burrata arrangement.
- Transfer the roasted red peppers, seasoned olives, and marinated artichoke hearts to individual serving dishes and position near the other items.
- Tuck the grapes, fresh herb sprigs, and crusty bread slices (if using) in around the other ingredients to create a nice display and serve immediately. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
Make It A Meal!
A charcuterie board works well as a starter appetizer at a dinner party, or as part of the buffet table at a party.
Here are more appetizers you might like to try out:
- Savory Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms are Really the Perfect Party Appetizer
- Brie and Cherry Appetizers with Phyllo Pastry Cups
- Cucumber Feta Watermelon Skewers Party Appetizer with Balsamic Glaze
- Cheese-Stuffed Taco Meatballs Party Appetizer
- Black Bean Salsa Cups Appetizer
- How to Make the Ultimate Warm Spinach Artichoke Dip
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too!
Wild Wood
May 17, 2021 @ 6:19 am
Great content and tips that everyone can follow through on making a charcuterie board.