It’s the Italian Grand Prix and for Formula 1 Foods this time I’ve got not one Italian recipe, but a whole buffet menu!
We had family over for my boyfriend’s birthday earlier this year and I decided to do a buffet with a mixture of hot and cold food. I wanted to make sure there were a few fairly substantial dishes along with things like sausage rolls and hit upon the idea of giving the whole meal an Italian theme. There are so many things that work well for buffets, from pasta dishes to cold antipasti. Here’s a description of what I made and bought (after all who has the time to do an entire buffet from scratch?). As I was also catering for vegetarians I’ve noted which dishes are suitable with (v)
Cold food – nibbles and starters:
Bread sticks, aka grissini, with sour cream and chive dip which I bought (v)
Caprese salad of sliced mozzarella, tomatoes and basil leaves, drizzled with oil (v)
Antipasti: red peppers from a jar (v); stuffed olives (v); sliced salami and prosciutto
Hot food: nibbles and starters
Mozzarella sticks: mozzarella pieces in breadcrumbs which I bought from Iceland and cooked in the oven (v)
Sausage rolls – not really Italian but my boyfriend wanted them!
Garlic bread (v)
Mini margherita pizzas, which I bought and cooked in the oven (v).
Main dishes
Italian herb chicken mini fillets (from Tesco)
Tomato and mozzarella pasta bake (v)
Meatballs with farfalle pasta and tomato sauce
Tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad with a mustard dressing (mix olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and garlic to taste). Can also do a portion without tuna for anyone who doesn’t eat fish.
Stuffed peppers, filled with risotto rice and melted mozzarella
Dessert:
Mini Profiteroles from Iceland – these are sometimes known as a French dessert but were apparently invented in Italy
I also served birthday cake, cupcakes and cookies, which you can read about here.
I'm sharing this with Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I host, as the theme this month is Italy.
