Christmas Appetizer: Prosciutto, Pear, & Brie
After a nice hunk of leftover chocolate cheesecake for breakfast the task at hand for Christmas Day was to prepare dinner: Short Ribs in a red wine reduction. But you’ll hear about that later.
Of course we’d need something to nosh on while cooking the ribs, so I made some prosciutto bites. A combination of sweet pear, with sharp brie, and salty, delicate ham, makes for a snack no one can resist. As a lover of prosciutto, it was not hard for me to play around with combinations until I came up with something just right. A sacrifice of time I was happy to make and it was never hard to find willing taste testers, either.
Kayto’s Prodigal Prosciutto Pear Peaks
1 baguette, sliced into 3-4 inch thick long, 1/2 inch pieces on the diagonal
1 8oz Brie wheel, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 jar Pear preserves
12 oz Boar’s Head Prosciutto Picollo
I go with the Boar’s Head Piccolo here, because it is a very tasty prosciutto at just about half the cost of the prosciutto de parma. And it’s significantly less expensive than the pre-packaged containers of 3-4 oz of Columbus brand prosciutto and far better tasting.
Make sure the brie has been well refrigerated otherwise it’s just a total bitch to get into slices. Once sliced you can leave at room temperature until your bread is toast. Lightly toast the baguette slices on a cookie sheet in the oven under the broiler until they’re just golden brown, about 3 minutes. Take the sliced baguette out of the oven and lay a piece of brie onto each serving of bread. The brie will get warmed, but not super melty. If you want a gooeyer offering, feel free to throw the slices of brie onto the bread for the last minute or so that it’s under the broiler.
On top of the brie smear about 1 – 2 tsp of pear preserves on each. This doesn’t sound like much, but it is very sweet so a little goes a long way. Take a single slice of the prosciutto and tear in half. Fold or curl gently onto the pear preserves.
Then shove the entire thing your mouth before somebody else tries to take it from you. Then lament that you have to make a full tray of them that other people get to eat.
The Nerdy Foodie 