New ideas for Italian Appetizers

How much is left in the budget after you make everything you plan on making now?

prosciutto and fresh figs

what they call "pizzette" here - it's a base which can be bread or puff pastry, rolled into flat circles  (two inches across diameter) with tomato or tomato and mozzarella.  That's a standard thing here.  I find them boring but people love them.  More easily picked up with the fingers. 

if you want to be ambitious you can make turnovers with olive oil crust filled with squash, sauteed onion, pinoli, etc, or with swiss chard or blanched curly endive sauteed in garlic, oil, gaeta olives and raisins.  Make them small like raviolis and bake.  They;re good cold. 

Many parties here have a frying station and someone freshly frying stuff like zucchine flowers, small fish, croquettes of various kinds, etc.  It's very impressive and these disappear instantly, but it takes some preparation. 

You might want to consider, scarbelly, that italians are very VERY particular about their own food and the whole world has a reputation for having terrible food (yes, everywhere) because they try to eat Italian wherever they go and of course nobody cooks italian like italians do.  Not anyone's fault, it begins with the ingredients being different, but there is just a very different idea of Italian food in the states and other countries than there is in Italy. 

So you might want to try a very american reception, with the best of the american stuff they;ve probably gotten to like but because they;re going home will not get a chance to eat again. 

Imagine yourself in Italy for a year, and then about to go home where you will be able to eat all the things you've missed all that time (and believe me there will be plenty, from bagels to muffins to a elaborate sandwiches to guacamole, burritos, fried chicken, and ton of other stuff) and instead of giving you a sendoff with the wonderful things you will later miss about italy, they give you sort of less-than-average quality stuff you're going to get in a few days in its original version anyway (dry bagels, overly sweet muffins, sandwiches on very thin dryish bread that have been sitting out all day and the corners curled, guacamole that's nothing but squashed underripe avocados and some tomatoes etc).  I know what you make will be great, but that doesn't mean it will be the way italians eat it.  And in a short time they;ll be getting mamma's version of everything, and NOBODY can cook like Mamma. 

I guess the idea is the local students want something italian, but i bet you'll have all the italian exchange students eating around the dishes where the guacamole is, and all the other typically "American" things are. 

Just a thought.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scarbelly 

 

It is several folks donating and those are the items so far. We can add lots more. This is a going away party for several Italian exchange students and the party will be high school kids and lots of adults. One of the parents has a huge back yard and is hosting it. I have 6 chafers I am bringing and others have some too. We were origionally told we could not use them at the other venue but this parent stepped in.  This is going to be fun maybe 200- 300  during 6 hour open house

 

Oh I definitely agree with Siduri then, you're setting yourself up by making italian food.  It reminds me of when we visit greece each year, we stay during the summer for a quite lengthy amount of time, usually up to 2 months every year.  In this part of Greece there is ONLY greek food available.  There are no chinese restaurants, no BBQ places, no sushi, no mexican, no indian, nothing but greek food all around.  To top it off all the restaurants have exactly the same menu.  Don't get me wrong, I can eat greek food everyday but after 4-5 weeks I'm jonesing for a hot dog or a taco.  The day we come back to the states we visit my inlaws for dinner and what do they serve us? ... Greek food.

Anyway, I think that as a send-off dinner it may be a good idea to incorporate various foods that are tasty and good and don't fuss about them being Italian. 

Cut sliced bread in 4 smaller squares and spread gorgonzola dolce on each of them.

Add half slice of speck (make a roll using a toothpick) on half of them and half walnut on the other half.

Serve on a tray as fingerfood.

Easy, quick to prepare and usually the walnut ones pleases also children.

Buon appetito!

Ana Maria da Costa