Summer's Here...or Is It?
Recipe for mini mozzarella balls with roasted cherry tomatoes and olives, plus more summer antipasti
Benvenuti! Thank you for being here. Please click the heart at the top of this newsletter to help bring it visibility.
This week’s newsletter features a recipe for a piquant antipasto of mini mozzarella, slow-roasted cherry tomatoes, and olives, available to paid subscribers. You can browse the Buona Domenica archives here, and the full index of recipes (268 and counting!) here. A paid subscription gives you access to all archived newsletters and recipes and The Winelist, a monthly column by Scott Vance. We appreciate your support.
I was all set to proclaim this weekend the unofficial start to summer. But then I got to Maine, where it feels more like November than the end of May. There are signs of spring, if not summer, up here. Lilacs are in bloom, asparagus is starring on restaurant menus, and the other day I passed a sign for fiddlehead ferns at a farm market. But as I write this on Saturday morning, a persistent rain is falling and occasional gusts of wind are whipping up the tops of the tall trees.
No matter. I’m sitting in the living room of the house we are staying in, gazing at a cheerful fire started by my former Boy Scout husband, while also keeping an eye on French Open tennis. In western Europe, summer has arrived, and with blunt force. Withering heat is wreaking havoc at Roland Garros, where the men’s World #1, Italian Jannik Sinner, basically dissolved into a puddle the other day and lost a second round match in which he was up two sets to love and 5-1 in the third.
If I had even a single drop of ambition at the moment, I might pick up ingredients to make a pot of fish chowder or stew—it’s halibut season here in Maine, as Nancy Harmon Jenkins reminds us in her latest newsletter. But to tell the truth, after six weeks of promoting Italian Cookies, much of it on the road, I’m feeling a little wilted myself. So instead of making chowder, I plan to find a diner that will serve me a bowl of it.
I’m still declaring this weekend the unofficial start to summer, weather be damned. Last Sunday, Milan-based food writer Laurel Evans and I chatted about the summer dishes we are looking forward to making. Those that spring to mind immediately for me are antipasti, or antipasti-adjacent—the kinds of dishes you can put out for lunch or dinner, cold or at room temperature; a mix-and-match assortment of grilled, roasted or fried vegetables, cheeses and salumi, pasta and rice salads, and things on bread that spark your appetite whether it’s hot and sunny or cold and rainy.
If you didn’t catch our conversation live, you can view and listen to it here:
Which dishes are you most looking forward to making this summer?
RECIPE: Ciliegine, Cherry Tomato & Olive Antipasto
A couple of weeks ago, I rustled up this piquant antipasto of marinated ciliegine (mini mozzarella balls) with ingredients that I had in my fridge (cheese) my pantry (sundried tomatoes and olives), and the garden (herbs). I spooned it onto crostini and brought it to a book event as a savory counterpoint to all the cookies. It went over well, and I even got a few requests for the recipe, so I’m posting it here. I have a feeling it will become this summer’s VIP antipasto. It’s the sort of thing you might find in the deli section of the supermarket. But much better, because it’s homemade and hasn’t been sitting in the cold case for days.
There is a small amount of prep work required—namely, the slicing in half of cherry tomatoes and positioning them on a baking sheet for slow-roasting—but once that’s done, it all comes together easily. You can also add to the roster of ingredients: bottled artichokes, anchovies, roasted peppers, even diced spicy salami. I seasoned the cherry tomatoes before roasting them with a sprinkle of fennel pollen, which I had left over after making the pistachio cake I posted last week. You can substitute fennel seeds if you don’t have the pollen.
I recommend making this several hours, or even a day in advance, as its flavor improves with a rest in the refrigerator. Be sure to let it sit out to take the chill off before serving.
Makes 6 or more servings
Click on the button below for the full, printable recipe, available to paid subscribers.
FOUR MORE ANTIPASTI FOR SUMMER
Friends: I will be taking a short pause next week to regroup before another round of Italian Cookies events. The next newsletter will publish on Sunday, June 14. Ci vediamo allora.
Un caro saluto,
Domenica
I really enjoyed your live with Laurel. I wrote a comment under her post so not sure if you saw it. But, like you, I also look forward to eggplants, and love them grilled, ripiene, sott’olio etc.. Also, this antipasto sounds absolutely wonderful and something I’d eat on repeat.
Hi Domenica - So happy to hear you are taking it easy before the workshop, at least as far as cooking goes! The Ciliegine, Cherry Tomato & Olive Antipasto sounds wonderful, I know I'll make it as soon as we have more cherry tomatoes available at the farmers' market. Thank you for all your hard work making us discover Italy and its food in a very enjoyable way!