These hors d'oeuvres can be served as an antipasto (the first course of a meal) or as hors d'oeuvres for a party. It's a delicious dish enjoyed by carnivores, vegetarians and even vegans.
*See Kitchen Notes for more information.
To serve, drain the vegetables and arrange on a plate. Add the rolled pepperoni/salami, cheese and peppers to plate. If you are planning on serving vegetarian or vegans, you can put the meat and cheese on other plates or arrange so they sit alone on the plate without touching the vegetables.
Vegetables - A variety of vegetables can be used. The combination used in this recipe works great because it provides different textures, flavors and color to the final presentation. Other vegetables that work include celery, sweet onion, raw sweet pepper strips, or broccoli stems. For the artichoke hearts, I used a jar of plain artichokes. However, you could cook up some fresh artichokes if you want or use canned. Just don't use the marinated artichokes hearts. I've always found those too salty and oily.
Olives - Be sure to use seedless olives. You don't want anyone to break a tooth. For this particular batch, I used Kalamata and seedless green olives from an olive bar.
Cheese - My preferences are provolone or fresh mozzarella, however other cheese such as regular mozzarella, aged cheddar or Manchego are quite delicious as well.
Peperoncini Peppers - In the past I have found that most people don't eat a whole pepper, so I started using the sliced peppers. People would top the vegetables with slices of pepper making them much easier to eat and adding a bit of a bite to the vegetables. The sliced peppers always disappeared along with everything else.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen