This past week, my husband tilled and planted our garden. It’s gotten plenty of water over the past few days with all the rain we’ve had!

If this year’s garden is anything close to how plentiful last year’s garden was, we’ll have enough to feed an army…or at least our small brigade.

Going through my box of family recipes, I found my grandmother’s recipe for Italian Summer Salad. This will be perfect for when the peppers are harvested.

My grandmother found this recipe about 20 years ago in our local newspaper and it was originally named Robert Wagner’s Marinated Antipasto Salad.

With it’s blend of fresh and marinated vegetables with oregano, basil and mozzarella cheese, Italian Summer Salad seems more fitting.

Italian Summer Salad [aka Robert Wagner's Antipasto Marinated Veggie Salad]

Yield: 6-8

Originally named, Robert Wagner’s Marinated Veggies, this vegetarian side dish is sure to please a crowd. It’s best to give this salad time to marinate overnight. It’s as pretty as it is delicious.

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Ingredients

• 1 large green pepper, cut into strips
• 1 large red pepper, cut into strips
• 1 large yellow pepper, cut into strips
• 2 celery ribs, sliced
• 4 oz small, white mushrooms, rinsed and trimmed
• 6 oz jar of marinated artichoke hearts, quartered and reserve the marinade
• 7 1/2 oz jar of hearts of palm, drained and sliced
• 1/2 cup pimento-stuffed olives
• 8 oz mozzarella cheese, cubed
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and freshly milled black pepper

Instructions

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a glass dish and marinate overnight. Simple as that!