How To Build a Charcuterie Board With What You Have In Your Pantry
by Mikka PaduaApril 04, 2020
One hosting hack I've mastered from years of 'hosting' at home is building a charcuterie board with whatever we have in our fridge, cupboards, or pantry.
I often find myself in situations (usually late afternoons) when I have a bunch of people over after we have wrapped up a shoot or a team meeting.
My love language is whipping up something for them as if I had it planned all along. The look of surprise on their faces when they see the platter of mishmash nibbles presented fancy hors d'oeuvres-style is priceless.
The other day, Mischka and I had a fun time putting together a charcuterie but without the board and the processed meat (I have stopped eating such in over a year now but my family still does once in awhile).
We shopped our pantry as if it were Santi's and picked out items we thought of throwing into our charcuterie. There were olives, leftover dried cranberries, almonds, bread sticks, crackers, and some chips. We raided our fridge for tomato tapenade, leftover cacao nibs and cheese. We're running low on fruits so we settled with one last piece of orange.
We opted to do away with the board this time around and use kraft paper instead. What you will need:
Build your board starting with the backbone of your grazing lot which are usually the bigger items: bread, cheese, and in this case our tomato tapenade and olives.
Add the medium sized characters like chips, crackers, and bread sticks (whose length add a nice variety to the shapes and sizes of the lot).
Introduce the little guys such as the nuts and dried fruits. They're tiny but they do the important job of pulling the look together.
And finally, I like to top it off with fruits not only to neutralise the taste but to add a pop of color to your board.
Our pantries will look differently but like always, tap into your creative juices and get started on your makeshift charcuterie board. It's a guaranteed hit with your family and your husband will no doubt feel special. Your children if anything, will be introduced to new words and might even learn to pronounce charcuterie {shaar·koo·tr·ee}.
Mikka Padua
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