5 easy and delicious appetizers for good weather

The good weather is here! We want to be out in the sun to recharge our energy, we want to take walks along the beach by the sea and we want to eat without complications, with menus based on light dishes and appetizers that take little time to prepare but with that touch of joy and festivity that summer brings us.

So today we are going to focus on the recipes that are most successful at home, that we have ready in the blink of an eye and that also make us look like top chefs. We will nail them!

To make it easy for you, we are going to prepare these five super-quick and very effective recipes :

1. Vegetable skewer with pesto
2. Bacon rolls with marinated olives
3. Mini corn skewers
4. Brie cheese toasts with strawberry jam
5. Mini cherry and mozzarella skewers

These five suggestions are a real statement of intent. Using seasonal produce, I promise you great results with minimal effort, so you can enjoy the good weather and some amazing appetizers, without giving up on eating well. Are you up for it?

1. Vegetable skewer with pesto

Ingredients

• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Tomato
• Mozzarella cheese or goat cheese roll, whichever you like best.
• Oil
• Light pesto
• Toothpicks for assembling the skewers

Preparation

1. Heat the grill or griddle to cook the vegetables and while it is heating up, clean the zucchini, eggplant and tomato and cut them into slices of just over half a centimetre. You can do this with a sharp knife or use a mandolin to make them even.
2. Place the slices on the hot grill with a dash of oil and cook to your preferred doneness.
3. While they are roasting, cut the cheese you have chosen into slices slightly thinner than the vegetables.
4. When the vegetables are almost done, turn off the heat and keep them on the grill so you can remove them as you assemble the skewers. This will help the cheese melt slightly when you assemble the skewers, but without melting it completely.
5. Prepare the skewers by alternating the slices of vegetables and cheese to your liking: eggplant, zucchini, cheese, tomato, etc. Arrange them as you like and stick the toothpick in so that it sticks out so you can pick them up easily.
6. Finally, pour a generous spoonful of pesto over the skewers and enjoy!

Grades

• You can make homemade pesto. It takes very little time to prepare and the result is delicious. You will find the recipe for traditional basil pesto here and also the recipe for two other variants, with arugula and walnuts and with dried tomatoes, with which you can give a different touch to your dishes.

2. Bacon rolls with seasoned olives

Ingredients

• Bacon cut into strips
• Pitted black olives
• Chopsticks to prepare the rolls
• Bread cut into slices (optional)

Preparation

1. Heat the grill or griddle to lightly brown the bacon.
2. Cut the bacon strips in half and drain the olives well.
3. Place the bacon on the grill and when it is done, turn it over so that it is marked on both sides.
4. Remove the half slices of bacon, place an olive on each one and roll the bacon into a roll.
5. Close the rolls by pricking them with a toothpick.
6. You can serve them as is or place a few rolls on a slice of toast to accompany each bite.

Grades

• You can vary the recipe for bacon rolls with olives by replacing the olives with dates. The sweetness of the olives goes wonderfully with the flavour of the bacon. You'll see how delicious it is!

3. Mini corn skewers

Ingredients

• A cooked ear of corn or shelled cooked corn
• Melted butter
• Parmesan cheese powder
• Sweet paprika
• Spicy paprika
• Toothpicks to form mini skewers

Preparation

1. Remove the kernels from the corn cob if you have a whole cob. You can do this easily with the Chef'n Corn Cob Peeler .
2. Stick several kernels of corn on a toothpick so that only one end is free, so that you can hold the toothpick when eating the corn.
3. As you get them, arrange them on an oven-safe tray.
4. Prepare the paprika butter by melting the butter in a bowl, adding sweet paprika and a little hot paprika to taste and stirring well. You can omit the hot paprika if you wish.
5. Brush the skewers with the paprika butter.
6. Sprinkle parmesan on top and broil until done.
7. Serve with tomato sauce or barbecue sauce.

Grades

• If you have an air fryer , you can definitely prepare these mini skewers there with perfect results.
• You can make them without adding hot paprika, if you prefer, but with just a pinch you won't notice much of the spiciness and you'll see how the flavor changes.

4. Brie cheese toast with strawberry jam

Ingredients

• Slices of bread
• Brie
• Butter
• Strawberry jam
• Chopped pistachios (or any dried fruit you prefer)

Preparation

1. Heat the iron grill over medium heat and grease it with a little butter.
2. Cut the slices of bread in half to form triangles and place them on the grill to toast. Turn them over when the grill marks are visible on the bread, so that they are marked on both sides.
3. Cut the brie cheese into slices that are not too thin, about one cm.
4. When the bread is toasted on both sides, without removing it from the grill, place a slice of brie cheese on each triangle, apply a dessert spoon of strawberry jam and sprinkle some chopped pistachios on top.
5. You can serve it directly on the grill.

Grades

• If you want a recipe to make strawberry jam at home, you have the recipehere , but if you prefer a ready-made one, I can't help but recommend Tiptree's strawberry jam .
• If you want to vary these toasts with different cheeses, you can use camembert cheese, goat cheese or even a blue cheese like Roquefort.

5. Mini cherry and mozzarella skewer

Ingredients

• Mozzarella balls
• Round cherry tomatoes
• Red pepper
• Yellow pepper
• Arugula
• A few leaves of fresh basil
• Dried ground oregano
• Toothpicks for skewers

Preparation

1. Drain the mozzarella balls.
2. Wash and dry the cherry tomatoes.
3. Cut the peppers into squares the same size as the cherries and mozzarella balls.
4. Arrange a bed of arugula leaves on the tray on which you will be serving the skewers.
5. Prepare the mini skewers by skewering a piece of red pepper, a mozzarella ball, the yellow pepper, another mozzarella ball and a cherry tomato.
6. Place the skewers on the bed of arugula, on a nice platter .
7. Finely chop the basil leaves and arrange them on the skewers.
8. Sprinkle a little ground oregano and enjoy!

Grades

• You can use just one variety of pepper, or use the green one, but in this case I recommend that you do it as you see in the recipe and in the same order in which they are skewered, because this way their sweetness will make the difference. The skewer goes from sweetest to least, ending with the cherry tomato, which should be the round one and which gives it the acidic touch at the end.
• From cherries and mozzarella, you can prepare other mini skewers: alternating fresh basil leaves, with olives, gherkins, with boiled quail eggs... There are so many possibilities!
• You can serve the mini skewers as is or you can also accompany them with a little traditional homemade pesto or something different. You can find the recipe here .