The 3 Hors D'oeuvres That Solved Our Biggest Dinner Party Problem
Now when everyone arrives, you’ll be calmly sipping some wine.
It’s a tale as old as time: the party starts at 6pm, people trickle in fashionably late, and that cheesy bubbly dip congeals before anyone had time to appreciate its glory. It took a long time to prepare, and you just want to tell everyone: "You should have tasted it right out of the oven! It’s meh now, but I am not a mediocre cook!" This is probably why charcuterie boards are so popular. They look impressive and they wait for everyone. In a recent Food Network editorial meeting, I discovered that I'm not the only party host who has this problem.
What’s needed? Appetizers that taste delicious at room temperature, and won't fall flat after only a few minutes on the buffet. Yes, you could set out chips and dips or crudites. Tasty, popular, but also: been there, done that. You could put out nuts and olives and cheese straws. But no one has ever fought over a bowl of nuts. What we want is an appetizer that’s as sexy as warm doughy puff pastry with the longevity of a stalk of celery. That’s what I told myself when I set out to develop several appetizers that would solve our dinner party conundrum. Behold, my three brainchildren that follow. I love them all equally.
Renee Comet
Slow-cook canned tomatoes in a bath of olive oil, tomato paste, vinegar and a touch of sugar and you’ll end up with juicy tomato halves that taste like deep, roasted pizza sauce. People go gaga over this appetizer, and a few members of our test kitchen have already incorporated it into their regular entertaining rotations. You can cook the tomatoes hours ahead of time and leave them lounging at room temperature in their olive oily sauce. Or you can make them a day or two in advance and their flavor will marinate and deepen. To serve, spoon them over slabs of seasoned, spiced herby bread. I made this the other day and topped it with confit garlic, too, which was astounding.
Renee Comet
The sky is blue. And when whipped ricotta is on a restaurant menu, people get really, really excited. The funny thing is: it’s so easy to make. You just drain the ricotta and put it in a food processor. Why shouldn’t we eat it at home, too? That’s the rationale behind this appetizer. You whir up some ricotta, pipe it over crackers and garnish it with pretty toppings the way you’d garnish chocolate bark. It’s just as luxurious as a hot cheese dip, but, well, it’s room temperature.
Renee Comet
When brainstorming these recipes, I happened to chat with my lovely nanny Julia who’s from Spain. She pointed out that Spaniards are masters of leisurely drinking and eating and that many small tapas dishes are designed to sit out on your bar table. I decided to pull some of these together into a board (because everyone loves a good board). Many of the items on the board are store-bought, except for the pan con tomate, which takes mere minutes to whip up. In researching and developing this spread, I discovered that several specialty stores sell tapas boxes with many of the items I call for already bundled together. They retail for hundreds of dollars. Follow my recipe and source these items yourself – most major retailers sell them – and save yourself tons of money.
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