Starters (or flirtation)

Recipes: Romesco sauce, Bruschetta, Fresh ricotta and crackers

Making starters, a.k.a. hors d'oeuvres, a.k.a. pupus (in Hawaii), a.k.a. antipasti, has always been a mixed bag for me. When I'm cooking, I like to jump right into dinner and I tend to forget about appetizers. Maybe I'll put out some breadsticks and soft cheese. . . nothing too creative.

When I'm eating out, though, I love starters. Often I'll make a whole meal out of a few items from the appetizers menu. Why not do this at home? Late summer is a perfect time - it's too hot to cook and so much can be done with luscious ripe tomatoes, only available now. Here are some ideas for a starters menu for the two of you. It could be a perfectly luscious dinner al fresco with glasses of chilled rose' or a special beer. It could be the Start of an evening to remember. Hmmm.

Let's begin with Romesco, a Catalan sauce vivid with the taste of roasted bell peppers, tomatoes, and roasted nuts. It's the only part of dinner that involves much cooking, and that's just a bit of roasting and sauteing. You can make it in advance and hold it a few hours, or you can make it just before you use it. This recipe comes from a Deborah Madison cookbook, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, that I mentioned in a recent post.

Romesco Sauce

Makes about 1 cup of sauce
1 slice country-style white bread
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup almonds, roasted (but not salted)
1/4 cup hazelnuts, roasted and peeled*
3 garlic cloves
1 teapoon ground red chile (or red pepper flakes to taste)
4 ripe Roma tomatoes
1 tablespoon fresh parsley leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 large red bell pepper, roasted and peeled**, or 1 small jar roasted red bell peppers
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (if you can get Spanish olive oil, go for it)

Fry the bread in a little olive oil until golden and crisp. When cool, grind the bread, nuts, garlic, and chile in a food processor with the metal blade. Add everything else except the vinegar and oil and process until smooth. With the machine running, gradually pour in the vinegar, then the oil. Taste to make sure the sauce has plenty of piquancy (vinegar and/or ground chile) and enough salt.

*I have used an equal amount of roasted almonds (to make 1/2 cup almonds total) when I don't have hazelnuts and it's still wonderful. If you have hazelnuts, roast them in the oven or in a small skillet until you can smell them . When they have cooled a bit, rub them between paper towels to peel. It doesn't have to be perfect.

**To roast a bell pepper, wash, dry, remove stem and seeds, and cut in thirds lengthwise. Lay on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and smash down slightly to lay flat. Sprinkle with a bit of olive oil. Put under your oven broiler until the skin is black. Take out of oven and push them into a pile on the sheet, inverting a bowl over them so they can steam. When they are cooled the skins will be easy to remove with a paring knife.

Uses for Romesco Sauce

Romesco is a beautiful (brilliant red) healthy dip for fresh raw vegetables. Try cauliflower florets, broccoli florets, carrot sticks, thin asparagus, jicama sticks, chunks of sweet onion. It's also delicious with tortilla strips or chips or with pita triangles.

Saute medium-sized mushroom caps in a little olive oil until they are cooked but still firm. Fill with a teaspoonful of Romesco and top with a shaving of pecorino cheese.

Drain a can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and fry them in a little olive oil for a few minutes. Serve with toothpicks and a small bowl of Romesco for dipping. Addicting.

Toast slices of baguette to make bruschetta. Spread each one with Romesco, then top with sliced pimiento-stuffed green olives and sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley. Or use sliced garlic-stuffed olives. Amazing! See below for more bruschetta recipes.

Bruschetta (also called Crostini)

The Italians have made an art of bruschetta (pronounced broo-sket-ta). There are literally dozens of combinations of good-tasting morsels to put on toasted slices of bread. Here's how to make bruschetta, plus a few ideas for toppings:

To make bruschetta 

Lightly toast slices of baguette, or country bread, or sourdough bread, either in a toaster or in your oven. Rub each slice with a halved clove of garlic before topping.

Toppings

• Romesco sauce, sliced pimiento-stuffed olives, and chopped parsley (see above)
• Grated Fontina or Gruyere cheese, sauteed red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, thinly sliced basil
• Hard-boiled egg with anchovy. Process 1 hard-boiled egg, 4 anchovy filets, and a few capers in a food processor until coarsely chopped. In a small bowl, combine the egg mixture with 2 tablespoons mayonnaise and freshly ground black pepper. Spread these over bruschetta and top with a tiny leaf of lettuce. (Chopped ham could be substituted for anchovy)
• Saute chopped spinach leaves and chopped mushrooms in olive oil until the mushrooms are cooked. Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh lemon juice. Pile this onto the bruschetta and top with a thin slice of Swiss cheese. Slip under a boiler for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the cheese melts.
  
• Your choice of thin slices of salami or prosciutto, topped with curls of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and a bit of chopped ripe tomato.
• Mix together 1 chopped ripe tomato, 1/2 cup canned cannellini beans (rinsed and drained), a few tablespoons chopped fresh cucumber, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano) and 1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil. Top bruschetta with this mixture and grind a little fresh black pepper over.
• Saute 2 chopped ripe tomatoes in a little olive oil for a minute over medium heat, just to warm them. Stir in sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil leaves and 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar. Spread on prepared bruschetta.

You can see there are nearly endless variations of toppings, so be creative. If you keep in mind the principles of balance, taste, and color, you can't go wrong. In fact, you can easily create a delicious, nutritious, and provocatively interesting work of art with bruschetta.

We'll make one more starter that includes fresh tomatoes. This gives you an option in case you choose not to include tomatoes in your bruschetta toppings. It's ultra-easy and can be put out within minutes.

Fresh Ricotta and Crackers

The only requirement for this starter is that you buy fresh ricotta (not the usual supermarket kind in the little tub), which is available in Italian specialty food stores and finer grocery stores. In a pinch you can make your own quite easily, but we'll save that for another post. If you can't find fresh ricotta, use a mild goat cheese. It's a different taste, but equally delicious.

Another suggestion, although it isn't really a requirement, is that you get some interesting crackers. I recently used Raincoast Crisps Fig and Olive Crackers, which were fabulous. Something of this nature, something with a little more unusual taste or texture, is what you want to make this starter pop.

Pile some fresh ricotta in the center of a pretty serving plate. Ring the ricotta with beautiful crackers. Chop a few sweet tomatoes, like orange or yellow cherry types, and slice a few fresh basil leaves and strew them over the ricotta. Or, instead of tomatoes, chop a couple of fresh figs to top the ricotta. Or julienne some prosciutto over it.

You get the picture. It's easy to start something with starters!