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Cicchetti
3 Venetian Appetisers - Smoked Mackerel in a mustard sauce, Artichoke hearts with grana padano and parsley dressing and soft fresh cheese with pickled radishes all served on slices of bread.
Ingredients
- 12 slices of bread, lightly buttered (see notes) filone. baguette or sourdough
Smoked Mackerel in Mustard Sauce
- 1 medium smoked mackerel fillet, skinned and roughly flaked
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 lemon juice only
- 2 gherkins sliced
- salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
Artichoke Hearts with Grana Padano and Parsley dressing
- 4 artichoke hearts in oil
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 lemon, juice only
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
- 100 grams grana padano or parmesan shavings
- salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
Cream Cheese with Quick Pickled Radishes
- 50 grams soft cheese cream cheese, ricotta or quark
- 4 medium red radishes, sliced or 6 small radishes
- 60 millilitres white wine or cider vinegar
- 60 millilitres water
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar
- zest of half a lemon in fine strips
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Smoked Mackerel in Mustard Sauce
- Mix the mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice together,
- Add the flaked smoked mackerel to the mayonnaise mixture, season to taste.
- Pile the smoked mackerel mixture onto slices of bread and top with a slice of gherkin
Artichoke Hearts with Grana Padano and parsley dressing
- Mix the olive oil, lemon juice and finely chopped parsley together, season to taste.
- Cut the artichoke hearts into halves or quarters, depending on size and gently mix with the dressing.
- Divide the dressed artichoke hearts onto the slices of bread and top with shavings of Grano Padano cheese.
Cream Cheese with Quick Pickled Radishes
- First, make the quick pickled radishes, wash the radishes and slice thinly and pack them into a jar. Mix together the water, vinegar, salt and sugar and pour over the radishes. Leave for 15 minutes then use.
- Spread the bread thickly with cream cheese, ricotta or quark.
- Top with the quick pickled radishes and garnish with thin strips of lemon rind.
Notes
I used a sourdough loaf and cut the slices in half. As long as it's a crusty type of bread it should work fine.
I didn't butter the bread as we don't eat a lot of butter, but the butter will prevent the bread going soggy if you have to keep the Cicchetti for more than 15 - 20 minutes.