Featuring a homemade roasted red pepper and olive spread and loaded with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and fresh veggies, these Italian Antipasto Sliders are everything you love about an antipasto course, in a portable hand-held form. Serve them alongside a cold glass of wine and head for the patio to enjoy those first sunny days of spring!
Sliders are tiny sandwiches, usually served as an appetizer or snack. They typically feature small, soft buns that hold an assortment of fillings, making them a crowd-pleasing two bite (three bite at most) nibble. These Italian Antipasto Sliders combine traditional antipasto ingredients, such as prosciutto, fresh cheese, veggies, olives and bread into one portable, handheld snack that is perfect for parties, picnics and road trips.
Some sliders, such as our Hot Garlic Butter Ham and Cheese Sliders are pure cold weather comfort food, and are delicious served hot with crisp buns and gooey, melty cheese. After experimenting with these Italian Antipasto Sliders, I think they’re best served chilled or at room temperature, making them the perfect little snack for spring and summer. .
What goes in Italian Antipasto Sliders?
- Roasted Red Peppers: You can roast and peel your own red peppers if you’d like, or you can buy them roasted and ready to go in the pickle section of most grocery stores. If you buy them in the jar, simply drain, chop and add them to the other ingredients to make a delicious sweet and savoury sauce for these sliders.
- Black Olives: Look for a quality black olive with good flavour. You might be able to buy them pre pitted, but more likely you’ll need to remove the pits yourself. Make quick work of this task with a handy Olive and Cherry Pitter.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil: A delicious sauce is made for these sliders by combining the roasted red peppers, black olives, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Choose a rich tasting olive oil with good flavour for the best tasting sauce.
- Slider Buns: Slider buns are mini buns that are typically sold in packages, with the buns attached. For these sliders I used mini brioche buns, but any small, soft bun will work.
- Prosciutto: This dry-cured, unsmoked Italian ham is known for its delicate, salty flavour. Its ribbons of white fat add richness and savoury flavours to these sliders.
- Fresh Mozzarella Cheese: This type of fresh semi-soft cheese is usually made from buffalo or cow’s milk and comes in tubs, packed in brine. It is sometimes simply labeled as “fresh mozzarella”, but may also have names such as “fior di latte” (made from cow’s milk) or mozzarella di bufala (made from buffalo milk). While the cow’s milk and buffalo milk versions have subtle flavour differences, they both work well on sliders.
- Roma tomatoes: Any type of tomato can be used on these sandwiches, but Roma tomatoes (also known as plum tomatoes) are a firm variety that is just the right size for a slider bun when sliced into rounds.
- Fresh Basil: This classic Italian herb adds a punch of fresh flavour to these Italian Antipasto Sliders.
- Arugula: This peppery green weighs almost nothing, which is why the recipe lists just 28gr/1oz of arugula for twelve sliders. A couple of good handfuls of arugula, spread over the sliders, is all you need.
Assembling Italian Antipasto Sliders
If you’ve ever made a sandwich, then you’ve got this! Slider buns are typically sold attached together, in packs of 6 or 12. For easy assembly, don’t separate the individual buns before making the sandwiches. Simply cut the attached buns in half horizontally, top with fillings and cut them apart just before serving.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
These Italian Antipasto Sliders are perfect for a wide variety of occasions, including game days, picnics and parties. These tiny sandwiches make a manageable but substantial cocktail party appetizer, and are a delicious addition to a packed lunch. Serve alongside a bowl of soup for a fun weeknight dinner, or with a salad for a lighter lunch.
DRINK PAIRINGS
For these Italian Antipasto Sliders you need a white with enough acidity to cut through the richness of the prosciutto and fresh mozzarella cheese. Pecorino is an Italian white wine (yes, I know Pecorino is also a cheese!) that is crisp and refreshing enough to handle the fattiness, but also plays well with the salty olives in this recipe, making it my favourite choice for these sliders. Other Italian white wines that would work well are Pinot Grigio and bubbly Prosecco. If you wanted a red wine, and didn’t mind straying from the Italian theme, I’d pour Beaujolais. This French red is high in acidity, but light in body so it won’t overpower the flavours of the antipasto fillings. To keep things refreshing, try chilling the Beaujolais for 20 minutes before you serve it.
Italian Antipasto Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped roasted red pepper
- 1 cup pitted black olives
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 12 roll package of slider buns
- 100gr/3.5 oz sliced prosciutto
- 2 200gr/7oz balls of fresh mozzarella cheese
- 12 2-3 Roma tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, packed
- 28gr/1oz arugula
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place the roasted red pepper, black olives, olive oil and balsamic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until well chopped and combined. Some small pieces of pepper and olive are nice, so stop before the mixture in puréed. Set aside.
- Without detaching the individual rolls, use a bread knife to slice the slider buns in half horizontally. Place the bottom half of the buns on a work surface. Set the top half of the buns aside.
- Cut the prosciutto slices in half, then place the prosciutto slices over the bottom half of the buns. Slice the balls of mozzarella into 6 slices each (12 slices in total). Lay one slice of mozzarella over each bun. Cut the tomatoes into 12 slices, and lay one slice of tomato over each piece of mozzarella. Sprinkle each tomato with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then scatter the chopped basil over the tomato. Top the sliders with the arugula, spreading it out to cover each sandwich evenly.
- Transfer the top pieces of the slider buns to the work surface and spread evenly with the roasted red pepper and olive mixture. Place the top pieces of the buns over top of the arugula to finish the sliders. Use a bread knife to cut the sliders apart and serve immediately.
RECIPE NOTES
- While it may be tempting to pile your sliders high with additional toppings, overloading these mini sandwiches makes them messy and difficult to eat, especially if they are being served as an appetizer. Keep it simple with a layer of prosciutto, a slice of mozzarella, a single slice of tomato, a sprinkling of basil and a handful of arugula.
