Prosciutto Fruit Cups, a Thanksgiving Amuse Bouche
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When asked to make an appetizer or nibble for Thanksgiving for the Creative Cooking Group, I decided upon Prosciutto Filled Fruit cups because anything with a starch doesn’t seem like a good idea, unless maybe people are arriving two hours early. I do remember arriving at a Thanksgiving dinner one year, where the host had no intention of serving dinner for six hours. In the meantime, the wine kept flowing, the appetite growing, and the turkey never cooked. A fight broke out amongst the hosting couple and I learned that when a host serves heavy appetizers, eat up, as it may be the best bite of the day.
Retro Rose believes that the time you invite people should be the exact time you eat. If you happen to be coming to my house on Thanksgiving, it’s a different story. We argue over this every week, when she walks in the door on Sunday at 6:00 and dinner isn’t on the table. It must be something of her generation (she’s 78). I like a warming up period with guests, starting with a cocktail or glass of wine, and a nibble to get things started. One hour takes care of late comers and is still enough time to get some extra help, and as long as there is a bite of food, everyone seems willing.
Thanksgiving is a tough one, because it’s a feast, and an amuse-bouche, just a bite of food to amuse the mouth, seems appropriate. I know this might be considered very non-Thanksgiving of me to serve prosciutto, so I gave the pears a bit of a Thanksgiving pear spin, adding in cinnamon, nutmeg and browned sage butter.
I saw Prosciutto pear cups here on the blog, Cookaholic Wife. The Secret Recipe Club is an on-line blogging event in which we are assigned another food blog. The Cookaholic Wife is written by Nicole, who has a similar philosophy about cooking as I do if you read my tag line. She transformed her husband from a fast food bachelor to a happily married man eating home-cooked meals six nights a week. She has lots of slow cooker recipes that look wonderful, but this little nibble of prosciutto and pear stole my heart. This is not the first time I chose prosciutto for the SRC. Earlier this year I made, prosciutto wrapped broccolini.
I’m sort of cheating by doing two challenges in one post, but I did give the cups a creative spin by cooking the pears first, something that can be done the night before. You can take the easy way out and use raw pears, which is still a very nice bite. This should certainly amuse the mouth of hungry guests with that combination of sweet and salty and will pair nicely with a e this Butternut Squash Vodka Cocktail.
This is a super easy recipe, one in which the parts can be made hours in advance. Tell me, when you are a guest at a dinner party when do you expect to eat? Right away or within an hour or so?
Prosciutto Fruit Cups, a Thanksgiving Amuse Bouche
Ingredients
- 12 thin slices of prosciutto cut in half
- 1 large pears cubed
- 1 tablespoon ginger
- 6 sage leaves
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Place each half slice procuitto into mini muffin pans.
- Bake at 400 for approximately 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, melt butter in saute pan. Add sage leaves. Toss cubed pears with ginger and quickly saute in the pan for about 3-4 minutes. The pears will still have a bit of a crunch but all the flavor from the ginger and sage.
- When proscuitto cups are done, place on serving platter. Fill each cup with cubed pears.
- Makes 24. Serving is 2 each
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The Creative Cooking Group will post a round-up November 22 at Foodalogue, hosted by Joan
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Yum! Fresh grated or dried powdered ginger?
meat and fruit!
I never expect to eat when I arrive at a party-in fact I don’t recall ever doing so and might be put out if expected to do so. I want to chill and sip, maybe a tiny bite-like these prosciutto-pear cups. Nicely done-and who doesn’t want to double-dip on occasion? Happy Thanksgiving!
These prosciutto pear cups are a fabulous idea and a great pairing. In my town it does not matter if a friend is coming over for dinner on a week night or a big weekend dinner party, people only make it to the table 1 to 1h30 after arrival.
Ginger and pears are such a great combo. Love the crisp prosciutto too! Very nice starter 🙂
Thanks Victoria, I think the ginger leads into those lovely Thanksgiving flavors or even Christimas.
such delicious little bites! i love the sweet and salty contrast!
Chewy ham and sweet spicy pears looks like a winner to me. I love the pear plates too as well as the story of the turkey that never was. Really bad idea to wait that long to serve people with alcohol flowing. Yikes. Great little bite for the holidays.
Deana
That was my most memorable Thanksgiving, which is funny now.
I am not a fan of big family gatherings, so I ALWAYS go for the cocktail … or two … before sitting down. These little cups would be perfect with a drink!!!
Haha. I like my own family gathering at my house, but when I have to go elsewhere, I’m all about where is the wine?
Angela these look divine and with a salad I would be happy with these for my Thanksgiving Dinner with a glass of wine added in!
I just LOVE this idea! I don’t like raw prosciutto, so this is perfect for me! I will definitely be trying this one! Thanks for sharing! Pinning! =D
I agree with you, I like to give people at least an hour to show up before serving the meal. Plus it gives those who are on time time to chat over a drink and appetizers while we wait for the meal.
Nothing strange about prosciutto at Thanksgiving. I endorse the AB too. GREG
I don’t expect dinner on the table the moment I walk in the door, but I still expect it pretty promptly (probably ideally about 15 minutes or so after the start time). The exception is when the invite specifies cocktails or some such thing beforehand. I also expect my guests to appear within 10 minutes of the time I give them. Alas, my guests usually take a year or so to learn that…
Stephanie
That was funny about how long your guests take to learn they need to show up on time. I could volumes about that one 🙂
I’m so glad you liked them!
What a creative appetizer! The salty/sweet combo must be amazing.
These sound AMAZING! I love the sweet/salty combo… question though, is the ginger the dried ground type or minced fresh? Thanks!
That looks absolutely amazing– and great for a dinner party!
What a perfect light and tasty small bite for an appetizer or even nestled on a plate of greens salad. YUM!
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, Dee, I can see these on a salad too Great idea.
That’s a perfect bite. I always love the salty-sweet combo. I prefer the idea of cooking the pears because it gives the additional contrast of textures too.
We took a similar approach to this challenge — I guess because we have a similar attitude toward entertaining. I’ll be posting mine tomorrow.
the saltiness of the proscuitto and the sweetness of the pears would be an excellent pairing. I happen to have both in the kitchen.
A wonderful idea and delicious combination!
Cheers,
Rosa
I bet those would get eaten up super fast. I wouldn’t be able to resist them.