This crowd-pleaser Antipasto Cheese Ball with salami, bell peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and rosemary is savoury, festive, elegant, and delicious.
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Cheese Enthusiast
Hello everyone. Who is excited about the weekend? Who is excited about some more holiday baking? Lastly, who is REALLY excited about this cheese ball?
Guys, before we talk about this recipe, please also check this Christmas Panettone Tiramisu. It is absolutely delightful!
You probably remember me being a huge cheese enthusiast. A good cheese plate is the best cookie plate, to me! Please don’t get it wrong – I LOVE cookies too, and I bake them a lot in December. However, festive savoury things have been my favourite for the past couple of years.
Cheese Ball Collection
Anyway, I have quite the collection of cheese ball ideas:
Cranberry Pistachio Cheese Ball
Tangerine Pecan Pomegranate Cheese Ball
Italian Cheese Log (Well., it is technically not a ball.)
Pistachio Cranberry Bacon Cheese Ball
Antipasto Cheese Ball
As you can see, most of them are sweet and savoury combinations. While I love all things sweet & salty, it’s great to have more exclusively savoury ideas.
This Antipasto Cheese Ball features many delicious things such as salami, olives, roasted peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, and rosemary. Indeed, it could easily be customized to your taste. Just keep in mind that the cheese, salami, and most marinated vegetables are pretty salty. Also, do not discard the oil from sun-dried tomatoes. It is absolutely aromatic, and it also adds a shiny finish.
Next, it is a crowd-pleaser recipe. But no worries if you have got any leftovers. Actually, we used it the next day for a pasta sauce, and it turned great!
I hope you like this or any other cheese ball idea from my collection. And don’t forget to indulge yourself with something cheesy and savoury. Cheers for now!
Antipasto Cheese Ball
Course: AppetizersDifficulty: Easy8-12
servings10
minutes10
minutes2
hoursThis crowd-pleaser Antipasto Cheese Ball with salami, bell peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and rosemary is savoury, festive, elegant, and delicious.
Ingredients
- Cheese Ball:
2 cups grated cheddar, preferably not too salty (You can substitute for 1/2 grated pizza mozzarella)
2 cups plain cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
70-100 gr. salami, finely chopped
1/3 cup roasted bell peppers (from jar), drained and chopped
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
2-3 marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
few small pieces of hot peppers (from jar), minced
1 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
- The Outer Layer:
~ 1,5 to 2 cups of olives cut in half (wash out the excess of salt), sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, or other veggies of your choice
small slices of prosciutto and salami, rolled up
fresh rosemary, to garnish
oil from sun-dried tomatoes, for brushing
Directions
- In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, sour cream, and cheddar until well-mixed. Stir in the chopped salami, peppers, tomatoes (or any other combination of your choice), rosemary, and smoked paprika. You can also add 1 tbsp. of oil from tomatoes.
- The mixture will remain soft and sticky. Shape the mixture into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
- Remove from the fridge. Transfer to a serving plate, if needed. Decorate with the olives, tomatoes, peppers or whatever you fancy. It might be a little challenging to adhere the veggies to the surface, so you need to lightly press each element into the ball. Decorate with rolled up salami, prosciutto, and rosemary. Brush with some sun-dried tomato oil from the jar.
- Serve at once or chill 1-2 hours. Enjoy!
Hi – I’m Ben, a blogger, recipe developer, and food photographer. I’m glad you’re here! I hope you will enjoy hundreds of delicious recipes and a pinch of havoc in the kitchen.
This is a genius idea and it looks so festive. It’s a great new way to serve antipasto that I definitely need to try.
What a fun idea, Ben! I do love antipasto, so I know these cheese ball wouldn’t last long in our house. I bet you had fun making these one, too! (How much did you nibble on while making it? – be honest!) Also, I think it would be fun to have a cheese ball party – one know, all kinds of different cheeseballs. Sweet, savory, combinations of both. Let me know when I should arrive for that party! :-)
David @ Spiced recently posted…Black Tie Mousse Cake
What an amazing cheese ball Ben! I recall you having made others in the past but this one surpasses them all in my opinion! I love all the festive pictures too!
Neil recently posted…Chocolate Peanut Butter Baked Oats
Wow! What a fun, delicious cheeseball! Something for everyone—we’d all be fighting for the last bite :)
Ben, you got a lot going on with that cheeseball. I’ve never tried an antipasto cheeseball, now I’m hoping to soon. My mom used to make a paprika cheese log and pecan coated cheeseball every Christmas, but I’ve never made cheeseball. I should, you know. Thanks for the inspiration…
Ron recently posted…Knäckebröd or Swedish crispbread…
Mmmm LOVE antipasto. How did you know!? My Mom makes antipasto for us every year and the jars barely last a day. Cover a CHEESE BALL in antipasto!? I’m not staying away from that thing until it’s gone!!