Balsamic, tomato & goat's cheese bites

Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work, Vegetable recipes and Dinner parties

Now to the dinner party recipes . I knew everyone would be hungry when they arrived, having come directly from work, so I thought a couple of canapes would be a good idea – just enough to take the edge off the hunger.

These little morsels worked well. They’re adapted from a Donna Hay recipe (issue 21 of her magazine) – I’ve changed the quantities around and used goat’s cheese instead of bocconcini. I made the pitta rounds and balsamic dressing in advance and then let them cool, before storing the dressing in the fridge and the biscuits in an airtight container. You could even do this the day before and it then takes about 15 minutes to put them together, just before your guests arrive.

Balsamic, tomato&goat’s cheese bites

With twelve guests I allocated two of each canape per person, so I made twenty-four of these and the mini-frittatas.

0.5 cups balsamic vinegar
1.5 tablespoons sugar
6 pitta breads (I used spelt)
I bunch of basil, from which you’ll need 48 leaves
8 vine ripened tomatoes, thinly sliced – you need to get 6 good slices from each tomato
120g log of goat’s cheese

Preheat the oven to 180C. Using a 6cm cookie cutter cut out 48 rounds from the pitta bread. You’re aiming for 8 rounds from each piece of bread, so you need to be frugal – cut close to the edges and use as much of the bread as possible. Place on two baking trays and bake in the oven for 3 – 4 minutes. Turn the bread over and bake on the other side, for 2 – 3 minutes, until golden and crispy. Leave to cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container.

Place the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a frying pan. Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly for about 5 minutes, or until thickened and reduced. Set aside to cool.

To assemble: top one pitta round with a slice of tomato and a basil leaf. Put another pitta round with basil and tomato on top and then finish with a smear of goat’s cheese. Drizzle all your “bites” with the balsamic dressing and serve to your hungry guests.

Technorati tags: canapes , goat’s cheese , balsamic , finger food , dinner parties