It’s Carnival time! Are you hosting soon a party and your are still looking for some easy-to-make recipes? Voilà our new party menu series for our gourmet travelers – just in time for the carnival season!
Thus, buon appetito with our first menu mediterranean style (for your 6 guests)!
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I. Antipasto: Little sticks with baby mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and bell peppers or olives.
For a plate of 18 sticks take 18:
• toothpicks
• balls of baby mozzarella
• cherry tomatoes and
• pieces of bell pepper or 18 (half) olives.
Put everything on the toothpick and arrange on a plate.
We also recommend some baguette with it and some balsamic vinegar drizzled over the plate.
II. First course: “Polpette al sugo„
This is an Italian classic and every family has its own secret recipe but grandmothers meatballs are always the best. You can find them in slightly different versions in the whole mediterranean area.
Ingredients for about 25 small meatballs:
• 300g ground beef or chicken
• 2 eggs
• 60g of Parmesan cheese
• 2 pieces of bread (if it’s dry it’s better)
• 1\2 glass milk
• 750g sieved tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• Salt, Rosemary, thyme, olive oil
Soak the bread for about 10 min in the milk then squeeze it out and put it together with all the other ingredients (except rosemary and tomatoes) in a bowl and start working it with your hands until you can form balls.
Take a pan and heat up the tomatoes. Put the meatballs in and cook them for 30-40 min on a low temperature. Gently stir once in a while. When they are done (the meat needs to be cooked through!) you can place them nicely on a plate with some green garnish or leave them as they are to take with a toothstick if you prefer finger food.
Be generous with the thyme but careful with Rosemary, 2-4 needles are enough and if you like it spicy just add some chili to the tomatoes!
III. First course II: “Goat Cheese Tartelettes” 
The ingredients for this tasty, vegetarian course (6 pieces):
• 6 (12cm x 12cm) pieces of puff pastry
• 12-14 cherry tomatoes
• 300g fresh goat cheese (or any other kind of fresh cheese)
• 200g fresh spinach/green bell peppers (optional)
• 3 tsp. pine nuts
• 1-2 rosemary
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 egg yolk
• 100g green salad mix
• 6 tsp. balsamic vinegar
Fold inside all four sides of the pastry (about 5cm) in order to get a “nest”, spread the goat cheese on the puff pastry and decorate with halved cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, rosemary, spinach and drizzle some olive oil over it. Spread the egg yolk with a brush on the edges and put them in the oven for 20min at 175°C, until the edges have their nice brown color.You can now serve it as finger food or put it nicely on a plate with some green salad garnish and Balsamic vinegar drizzled over it.
As you see, we suggest you two first courses, as parties menus are much less complicated for the host & guest organized as a buffet!
IV. The desert: The delicious „Crema de‘ Medici“ – Orange crème with spicy mousse!
The ingredients:
• 300ml juice of a freshly pressed orange or lemon (untreated)
• grated fruit skin (of the orange or lemon)
• 2 egg yolks
• 30g corn starch
• 100g sugar
• 500ml mascarpone
• 30g dark chocolate
Stir the orange juice, egg yolk, corn starch and sugar with an eggbeater, put it into a little pot and bring it with stirring to the boil. Take it from the stove and cool it in the water bath.
Mix the mascarpone and orange crème and stir it well. Serve it in cups and garnish it with chocolate flakes and, if you wish, also with caramelized orange fruit skins.
Enjoy! (Irene, ger)
Do you have other suggestions? Please feel free to share them with us – also as a guest blogger on HTD!
her travel diaries 
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