How about a no-cook, easy, crowd-pleasing appetizer? How about another way to serve and eat cheese?
Yes, please?
These Caprese Skewers are great for cocktail parties – for any party really. When entertaining, I like to have a few things prepped in advance (and one fragrant dish in the oven as guests arrive so it smells inviting). This dish takes just a bit of assembling, but you can make the skewers in advance and pull them out of the fridge at the last minute as your guests start arriving. Or do you have a trusted friend who always arrives early and asks how they can help you in the kitchen? This is the perfect task for them.
For MMH’s bachelorette party, we had wine, cheese, and cheese-themed snacks laid out as people arrived at the house. Everyone had a skewer in her hand within minutes (and because we had made a trip to Costco for the weekend, we all had skewers in our hands all weekend.
Ingredients:
– grape tomatoes
– small mozzarella balls (approx 1″ diameter), in marinade (called bocconcini)
– small basil leaves
How do I make it?
- On each skewer, layer: tomato, basil, cheese; tomato, basil, cheese. You can do another round if you want, but it becomes more of a commitment after two rotations.
More information please?
One pint-sized carton of grape tomatoes will match up pretty well in number with a small bucket of marinated bocconcini (try Trader Joe’s if it is convenient for you). And if you are having a larger gathering, one Costco-sized carton of grape tomatoes will match up with a Costco-sized bucket of marinated bocconcini.
I recommend using small basil leaves rather than cutting or ripping larger basil leaves, because the exposed cut edges will brown and not look as appetizing as small full leaves.
Present the skewers on a plate, or in a vase or pitcher (cheese side up!).
As the assembler from MMH’s bachelorette bash, bridesmaid NB, noted, the oil in that bucket does wonders for your cuticles. Always looking at the bright side.
I love how these are more about assembling than cooking. We went to a potluck recently and my husband (who doesn’t really cook) wanted to bring something. He did some skewers with cherry tomatoes, black olives, cucumber and mozzarella with balsamic vinegar. Quite similar to these. They were a hit at the party, though there was a child there who loved mozzarella and managed to eat just the cheese from the skewers without anyone noticing until after the fact!
That would have been me, but stealing the black olives, when I was little!