Last night I had a friendsgiving of sorts and challenged myself to go outside of my “crock pot of meatballs” comfort zone and take my contribution up a notch.
I love to cook food, I just hate to fail at new recipes so that usually keeps me going back to my old standbys.
This time, I really stretched myself. I hunted all over for “fancy” but “simple” and not expensive recipes and found TWO amazing winners that I plan to use over and over again. The ingredients can be as cheap as you find them OR you can splurge on a higher quality of one or all of them.
Here are the two versions I made:
Pear Crostini
–2 ripe pears (you can tell a pears ripeness by feeling around the stem. If it feels as mushy as the pads of your fingers all the way around stem, it’s ripe!) I bought two varieties.
–1 cup of ricotta cheese (I know, I didn’t think I would like it either but trust me!)
–Crostini (slice a baguette into 1/2in slices, drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper them. Bake for ten minutes on each side at 350).
–Walnut pieces (you can buy the smallest bag you can find)
–Honey for drizzling. (This was one of my splurge items. I bought a really good honey.)
Spread ricotta onto crosstini, top with pears and a couple pieces of walnuts, drizzle with honey and serve immediately.
A scrumptious little bite of heaven.
Here’s the other variety I made. I honestly don’t know which I love more.
Prosciutto Crackers
You could serve this on the same kind of crosstini as above.
I used a good quality cracker.
.15lb of shaved prosciutto
1 cup of ricotta (add 1 1/2 tsp of fresh garlic. I buy prepared garlic found in a tube in the refridgerated section. Add salt and pepper to taste).
Honey
Top crackers with a smear of prepared ricotta, top with a small piece of prosciutto, drizzle with honey.
Simple but AMAZING. I promise you that these are delightful. AND you can eat a plateful and they won’t hurt your stomach because they are good, simple foods!
Make them!
While you are here, hop on over to my last post and enter to win $100 from Meow Mix! Just a comment will do! 🙂