Party Dishes: Fast Hors d'Oeuvres
Potato Crisps with Chive-Sour Cream Dip
Grace Parisi makes brilliant use of throw-away potato peels: She deep-fries them until they’re crispy, then sprinkles them with Parmesan. An utterly addictive snack, they’re great with cocktails, beer or wine.
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Warm Olives with Rosemary, Garlic and Lemon
Ready in just 10 minutes, warm olives accentuate their marinade's lemony flavor.
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Pancetta-Wrapped Mussels with Basil
Crispy, briny and juicy, these ingenious mussels are a simple and unexpected fall dish; they’re just as delicious roasted or grilled. Threading the shelled mussels onto skewers makes them easier to handle.
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Roast Beef Summer Rolls
Vietnamese summer rolls are often filled with chicken or shrimp, but Grace Parisi makes hers with roast beef from the deli.
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Tuna and Red Pepper Mousse Toasts
The mousse can be refrigerated overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving.
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Sunflower Seed & Rosemary Crackers
Rocca’s consulting pastry chef, Ruth-Anne Adams, and her husband, Tom Fosnot, the restaurant’s chef, sampled many breads while traveling through Liguria, Italy. A simple, sunflower seed–flecked cracker from the town of Chiavari was their favorite, and back at Rocca, they re-created it as a snack.
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White Bean Dip with Herbs
Drizzling a high quality olive oil over this dip will add depth and complexity, but stick with a less-expensive supermarket brand when sautéing the garlic and herbs. Any canned white beans can be used in place of the cannellini.
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Broiled Ricotta with Olives and Sun-Dried-Tomato Relish
Broiling ricotta intensifies its creaminess: It’s ideal with both sweet and savory toppings. Here, Maria Helm Sinskey serves it on garlic toasts garnished with olives and a tangy sun-dried-tomato relish.
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Fig-and-Stilton Squares
After baking flaky squares of puff pastry, Melissa Rubel tops them with sweet fig preserves and pungent blue cheese.