…plus an Italian meat & wine giveaway worth over £25.

It’s not very often that I take a day off. I mean, a real, proper day off. With family life, work and fitness goals I am on the go all of the time.

I took a day off on Mother’s Day. I spent the early morning geeking out mapping geocache locations along the Hadrian’s Wall national trail on my little pocket map (a friend and I are walking it in a few weeks!), and the afternoon was spent binge watching Once Upon a Time on Netflix with my children while nibbling a selection of delicious Italian food in my mismatched crockery – just the way I like it.

Lunch was courtesy of Diforti – a Sicilian company that has been providing quality Italian antipasti to customers since 1875. They sent me one of their Classic Antipasti Selection Boxes to try out, and what a better time to enjoy it than on a lazy Mother’s Day Sunday in front of the telly with the kids. In my pjs. All day.

Now, I’m a big fan of antipasti so I was really excited to receive this selection box from Diforti. In it – marinated semi-dried cherry tomatoes with garlic and oregano, Sicilian Nocellara del Belice olives, red sweet peppers stuffed with cheese, rustic Italian breadsticks, salami Milano, Spanish salted Marcona almonds and a wedge of aged Pecorino cheese with truffle.

I confess it was the cheese I was most excited about in this box. I’ve never seen Pecorino cheese available for sale on my remote little North Sea island, and the one other time I’d ever tried it was while on a whirlwind trip to Sardinia. The Pecorino included in this box is made from 100% Sicilian pasteurised sheep’s cheese with a tiny layer of truffle and it tastes utterly delicious. My daughter was a fan too, although my husband and youngest son weren’t (they’re not cheese fans like me!). (RRP £4.95 for 150 grams.)

The whole bright green Nocellara del Belice olives (RRP £2.50 for 100 grams) are early harvest olives in light brine from Castelvetrano Sicily, and they make the perfect accompaniment. They have a lovely crunch and flavour, while the red sweet peppers stuffed with cheese (RRP £2.95 for 200 grams) are very moreish as well as being an attractive red colour. I might have had more than my fair share of these!

Another thing I was really excited about in this antipasti selection box was the addition of some salted Spanish Marcona almonds (RRP £4.95 for 100 grams). Known as ‘the Queen of almonds’, Spanish almonds are a real treat, and this sweet, buttery variety is considered a great delicacy. They have been blanched, toasted and sprinkled with sea salt and they are delicious with any kind of drinks.

Also included in the selection box were marinaded semi-dried cherry tomatoes in garlic and oregano (RRP £2.95 for 130 grams) and the rustic Italian breadsticks (£2.95 for 250 grams). The tomatoes were lovely, but the least favourite of the antipasti selection. I’ve still got some left to use up in a recipe, while the breadsticks were devoured by my children almost instantly.

Last but not least, the salami Milano (RRP £2.20 for 8o grams). This traditional medium cut Italian salami seasoned with white wine, pepper and a hint of garlic and it’s a very tender, mouthwatering salami. This didn’t last long at all on the table.

All in all it was a rather fantastic, lazy, Mother’s Day lunch. I admit I added some kalamata olives, some ciabatta bread to dip in the olive oil and balsamic vinegar pictured, as well as finishing the meal off with some biscotti dunked in cherries in Fresia wine. Best Mother’s Day lunch ever.

The Diforti Classic Antipasti Selection retails for £21, although if you were to buy all the components separately it would retail for over £23. The items come delivered in their own special chill packaging to make sure it arrives in a perfect state. It’s the perfect amount of food to serve four, and there’s free shipping on orders over £40.

With over 200 different quality Italian foodstuffs to choose from, this website, which has just opened up to the UK, certainly has something to offer for everyone. Do check out their online shop for all your antipasti needs, your one-stop shop for la dolce vita!

GIVEAWAY

Diforti have very kindly offered one of my UK readers the opportunity to win one of their Italian Meat Selection Boxes (RRP £11.95) which includes Coppa, Prosciutto Crudo, Mortadella, Garlic and Rosemary Mixed Pitted Olives and Cri-cri Baked cheese Chips PLUS a bottle of Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva, Sardinia’s most famous red wine, worth £13.95, for a total prize value of £25.70.

HOW TO ENTER

For your chance to win a Diforti Italian Meat Box + bottle of Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva RRP £25.70 enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Come back and tweet about the giveaway every day for more chances to win!

TERMS & CONDITIONS

This giveaway is open to UK entries only. Entrants must be age 18 or over. The winner will need to respond within 30 days of being contacted; failure to do this may result in another winner being selected.

The prize is offered and provided by Diforti. The prize is to win a Diforti Italian Meat Box + bottle of Cannonau di Sardegna Riserva RRP £25.70. There is no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable.

There is no entry fee and no purchase is necessary to enter this giveaway.

The promoter (Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary) reserves the right to cancel or amend the giveaway and these terms and conditions without notice.

Entry into our giveaways will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here’s a quick clip to show you how. Rafflecopter will pick the winner at random from all the entries received. I will be verifying entries. Any automated entries or those who have claimed they have made the mandatory blog post comment and really haven’t will be disqualified. It’s mandatory! Please make sure your comment is eight words or longer or Google views it as spam and this negatively affects my spam score. All entries with comments fewer than the mandatory 8 words will be disqualified and deleted.

Closing date is midnight (that’s 00:00 hours, 12 am on Sunday night/Monday morning) on Monday 3 April 2017 (GMT). The winner will be announced afterwards.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary was sent a Classic Antipasti Selection Box for review purposes. This is not a paid post and all thoughts and opinions expressed are our own.