Charcuteri, Burrata and Crostini

After a summer of tomatoes and burrata what do you do?  Replace the tomatoes with freshly sliced prosciutto and crostini toasts.  It’s a well received,  hearty and cold weather starter for any dinner or cocktail party.  If you seriously think people want to head over to your house for a party and be greeted with a platter of crudités, think again.

Ingredients

• 2-3 chunks of creamy burrata from a specialty cheese shop or gourmet section of your market.  The mass produced burrata never turns out to be that good
• 1 baguette from a bakery shop or a gourmet grocery store (you don’t want a soggy loaf of bread just shaped like a baguette)
• Aged balsamic vinegar
• 1 pound of freshly and thinly sliced prosciutto
• Fresh basil
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

The Tools

• Half baking sheet
• Deli slicer Kidding
• Seving platter

Making It

• Make the crostini
• Bring the burrata to room temperaure
• Chop the basil in 1 centimeter squares, many say to chiffon the basil but long stips of an herb in front of others can be problematic during a conversation.  Do you really want to be remembered as the person with a green strip hanging out of your mouth?

Time to Cook

• Place the proscuitto in the middle of your platter in a way people can easily pull it away and not pull three other slices with it.
• Stack the 2-3 chunks of burrata down the middle, poke your finger through the top, pour in the balsimic and let some drip down the sides
• Surround with the crostini