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! :)
