How to Serve Charcuterie

The covid-19 pandemic is making it difficult to spend quality time with friends and family, so Albert and I were super grateful to be able to have dinner with a good friend of ours last week for the first time in months.

I set up a charcuterie board for all of us to enjoy before we got into dinner. While we were sipping our wine and snacking on cheese, our friend shared the most wonderful news…he and his wife are expecting! That’s what charcuterie is all about. Conversing and sharing these moments with the people important to you, over a lovely spread of tasty goodness.

I believe that every great host should know how to prepare and serve a charcuterie board. It’s easy, looks impressive, and there’s something for everyone! It doesn’t need to be that fancy, just an assortment of items that may already be in your kitchen. The basics are sliced cheese, cured meats, fruit, crusty bread and maybe some nuts or olives.

I always keep a variety of cheese stocked so at the bare minimum I can set out some cheese and crackers. But in general most of these ingredients are found in my refrigerator. For the zero cooking involved, it looks pretty darn amazing. All that needs to be done is some slicing and serving, and voila!

Below you’ll find some suggested items but each charcuterie board is different. Set out what you like and enjoy the most important part of it all…the quality time spent around it.

How to Serve Charcuterie

A reference for cheese and cured meats as a delicious appetizer for any occasion.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 0 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine French, Italian

Servings 4 people

Equipment

• cutting board
• Sharp knife
• Serving platter
• Various small bowls

Ingredients

  

Cheese

• hard cheese parmesan, manchego, montamore cheddar
• soft cheese mozzarella, brie, buratta
• flavored cheese havarti dill, smoked gouda, merlot bellavitano, rosemary asiago

Meats

• prosciutto a salty dry cured meat that is italy's delicious version of ham
• sopressa a type of italian salami spiced with salt, pepper and other seasonings, tends to be drier than regular salami
• salami sometimes called genoa salami, this is most often what comes to mind when we think of salami
• hot capicola a dry cured meat made from pork shoulder seasoned with spicy red pepper and other spices.
• ham or turkey regular ham or turkey work just as well!

Something Sweet

• sliced fruit watermelon, pears, apples, cantaloupe
• berries strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries
• dried fruit raisins, figs, apricot
• nuts pistachio, almonds, macadamia, cashews

Extras

• crusty bread
• crackers
• assortment of olives kalamata, garlic stuffed, manzanilla
• capers
• sliced cucumber
• cherry tomatoes

Notes

What is Charcuterie? 

-An assortment of sliced meats and cheeses, fruits, nuts and crackers or bread served atop a platter or serving board. 

 

Tips for plating:

-Choose a few items from each category listed above

-To make it your own, choose items that appeal to your unique tastes. The key is to make small bites accessible to the table. 

Keyword 15 minutes or less, appetizer, charcuterie, cheese, fancy, get together, meatball, party, serve