Appetizers for good weather

The good weather is here! You want to be in the sun to recharge your energy, you want to walk along the beach by the sea and you 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 gives us.

So today that's what we're going to do: 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 embroider it with them!

So that you have it very easy, we are going to prepare these five super-quick and very successful recipes :

1. Vegetable skewer with pesto
2. Bacon rolls with seasoned olives
3. mini corn skewers
4. Brie cheese toasties with strawberry jam
5. Cherry and mozzarella mini skewer

These five proposals are quite a declaration of intent. Taking advantage of seasonal products, I promise you a great result with minimal effort, so you can enjoy the good weather and some surprising appetizers, without giving up eating well. Do you dare with them?

1. Vegetable skewer with pesto

Ingredients

• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Tomato
• Mozzarella cheese or goat cheese, the one you like best.
• Oil
• light pesto
• Chopsticks to assemble the skewers

Preparation

1. Heat up the grill or griddle to cook the vegetables and while it heats up, clean the zucchini, eggplant and tomato and cut them into slices of just over half a centimeter. You can do it with a sharp knife or help yourself with a mandolin so that they remain the same.
2. Place the slices on the hot griddle with a drizzle of oil and cook them to the point you prefer.
3. While they are roasting, cut the cheese of your choice into slices slightly thinner than the vegetables.
4. When the vegetables are almost done, turn off the heat and keep them on the grill to remove them as you assemble the skewers. This will help the cheese melt slightly when you mount the skewer, but without melting completely.
5. Prepare the skewers by alternating the slices of vegetables and cheese to your liking: aubergine, zucchini, cheese, tomato,... Arrange them as you like and insert the toothpick so that it sticks out so that you can easily catch them.
6. Finally, pour a generous spoonful of pesto over the skewers, and enjoy!

Grades

• You can make homemade pesto. Preparing it will take you very little time and the result is delicious. You will find the recipe for the traditional basil pesto here and also the one for two more variants, arugula and walnuts and dried tomato, with which you can give a different touch to your dishes.

2. Bacon rolls with seasoned olives

Ingredients

• Bacon cut into strips
• Seasoned pitted black olives
• Chopsticks to prepare the rolls
• Sliced ​​bread (optional)

Preparation

1. Heat the grill or griddle to lightly pass the bacon.
2. Cut the bacon strips in halves and drain the olives well.
3. Place the bacon on the griddle and when it is ready, 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 poking them with a toothpick.
6. You can serve them as is or arrange a few rolls on a slice of toasted bread, to accompany each bite.

Grades

• You can vary the recipe for the bacon rolls with olives, substituting the olives for dates. The sweet spot combines wonderfully with the flavor of bacon. You will see how rich it is!

3. Mini corn skewers

Ingredients

• One cob of cooked corn or cooked shelled corn
• Melted butter
• powdered parmesan cheese
• sweet paprika
• hot paprika
• Chopsticks to form the mini skewers

Preparation

1. Shell the corn on the cob if you have it whole. You can easily do this with Chef'n's Corn Sheller .
2. Prick several grains of corn into a toothpick so that you only leave one free end, so that you can catch the toothpick when eating the corn.
3. As you get them, arrange them on a tray suitable for the oven.
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 pepper if you want.
5. Brush the skewers with the "paprika" butter.
6. Sprinkle parmesan powder on top and gratin until done.
7. Serve them with tomato sauce or barbecue sauce.

Grades

• If you have an air fryer , you can certainly 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 that spiciness and you'll see how the flavor changes.

4. Brie cheese toasties with strawberry jam

Ingredients

• sliced ​​bread
• Brie cheese
• Butter
• Strawberry jam
• Chopped pistachios (or the dried fruit of your choice)

Preparation

1. Heat the iron grill over medium heat and grease it with a little butter.
2. Cut the slices of bread in half forming triangles and arrange them on the grill to toast them. Flip them when the grill marks are visible on the bread, so that they are marked on both sides.
3. Cut the brie cheese into not very thin slices, approximately 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 spoonful 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 recipe here , but if you prefer a ready-made one, I can't stop recommending Tiptree's strawberry jam .
• If you are looking to vary these toasts with different cheeses, you can use camembert cheese, goat cheese or even a blue cheese such as Roquefort.

5. Mini cherry and mozzarella skewer

Ingredients

• mozzarella balls
• round cherry tomatoes
• Red pepper
• Yellow pepper
• arugula
• Some fresh basil leaves
• ground dried oregano
• skewer sticks

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 the mozzarella balls.
4. Arrange a bed of arugula leaves on the tray where you are going to serve the skewers.
5. Prepare the mini skewers by piercing a piece of red pepper, a mozzarella ball, the yellow pepper, another mozzarella ball and a cherry tomato.
6. Arrange the skewers on the arugula bed, on a pretty tray .
7. Finely chop the basil leaves and spread them over the skewers.
8. Sprinkle some ground oregano, and enjoy!

Grades

• You can use only one variety of pepper, or use the green one, but in this case I recommend that you do it as you see it in the recipe and in the same order in which they are punctured, because that way their sweetness will make a difference. The skewer goes from sweeter to less, ending in the cherry tomato, which must be the round one and which gives it the acid point at the end.
• Starting with the cherries and the mozzarella, you can prepare other mini skewers: interspersing fresh basil leaves, with olives, gherkins, with boiled quail eggs... There are many possibilities!
• You can serve the mini skewers as is or you can also accompany them with some traditional homemade pesto or something different. The recipe can be found here .