Grilled Starters

Hello everyone,

Today I brought you two crowd - pleasing, easy to make recipes that can be perfect starters of a barbeque dinner. Just a few ingredients and no special equipment needed. Both of them showcases a fruit paired with cheese and herb (plus a little this and that) resulting in a juicy, fruity, sweet yet tangy flavor.

1. Peach wrapped in prosciutto and filled with soft sheep cheese and thyme, drizzled with honey and a little balsamic vinegar.

2. Pear with blue cheese, walnut and rosemary.

Ingredients of the peach starter:

• peaches (obviously, ripe but not too soft, skin on)
• soft sheep cheese (you may use soft goat cheese instead, quantity needed: 2 teaspoons per peach)
• prosciutto (2 slices per peach)
• fresh thyme (2 small sprigs per peach)
• freshly ground pepper
• a bit of honey and balsamic vinegar to drizzle on top after grilling

Ingredients of the pear starter:

• pears
• blue cheese (2 teaspoons per pear)
• walnut (chopped, about 1 teaspoon per pear)
• fresh rosemary (a 3 cm sprig per pear)
• butter (1 teaspoon per pear)

Tools:

• barbeque ready to go
• wooden toothpicks
• cutting board
• knife
• melon baller
• thick tin foil

We're going to start with making the starter featuring peaches, and we're gonna need toothpicks to secure the prosciutto coat on the peaches while being grilled. First things first, you have to soak the wooden toothpicks in water for about 10 minutes to prevent them from catching fire.

Depending on how many people you wish to feed and how hungry they are, wash the adequate number of peaches and dry them. No need to remove the skin.

Take a peach and using a sharp knife, pierce it at the stem, cut until the knife hits the pit and cut around the fruit.

Place the peach in one of your hands, put your other hand on top (no way you can make this one-handed, therefore, no photos taken) and twist the halves into the opposite directions.

Pull the pit away from the flesh with your fingers.

Stuff the hole left by the pit with soft cheese (about 1 teaspoon but no strict rules), add thyme, black pepper and wrap into prosciutto. Turn the fruit upside down and push a toothpick through so as to keep the prosciutto in place.

Repeat with the rest of the peach halves.

Take a pear and cut it lengthwise. Remove the core with a melon baller (or a spoon as a matter of fact) from both halves, stuff blue cheese and chopped walnuts in place, add a rosemary sprig and put the halves back together.

Take a piece of thick tin foil, place the stuffed pear along with 1 teaspoon of butter in the middle and wrap the pear.

Place the foil parcels and the peaches on the preheated grill.

Grill both sides of the peaches for 2 minutes or until marks of the grid are visible.

Cook the pears in the foil for 10 minutes altogether.

Unwrap the pears and drizzle the peaches with honey and balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!