Charcuterie Dinner for Two

Ingredients:

• Cured or Dried Meat
• • spicy peppered salami, thick cut cacciatore, Italian dry salami, and calabrese salami, prosciutto
• Cheeses
• • pecorino Romano and mozzarella balls
• • parmesan, fresh ricotta, brie, gouda, or smoked cheddar
• Vegetables
• • Any vegetables that have been roasted in advance are delicious to use up
• • roasted cauliflower, tomatoes, asparagus, or peppers
• • Fresh carrots, snap peas, sliced radishes, cherry tomatoes, or cucumbers
• Fruits, fresh or dried
• • Berries, grapes, sliced pears or apples, dried figs, dates or apricots
• Dips or Tapenades
• • Hummus, white bean dip, ricotta spread, whipped goat cheese
• Extras
• • cornichons, honeycomb, salted or candied nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios)
• • olives
• • jam, spicy mustard
• • gluten-free crackers, pretzels

Instructions:

Prepare your platter for arranging and have all of your ingredients ready to go. Start by arranging any components you're serving in bowls on the platter.

Place the larger items on the board, using the bowls as your starting point. Think about textures, shapes, and colors when deciding what goes where.

As you start placing your items, don't worry about filling in empty spaces. Keep some of each item to fill in later, if needed. To add texture, roll up, fold, or fan out the meat, crumble or slice the cheese. To add shape, think about placing contrasting items near each other and putting similarly shaped items further away from each other. Also, to add contrast to your board mix up the colors.

Keep flavors that go nicely together near each other.

Once you've placed all your main components, fill in holes with nuts or crackers.