Food: Board games

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Party nibbles or simple starter: Jassy Davis’s grazing platters are your new go-to

Easy antipasti board

This is a celebration of Italian cured meats and cheeses. It’s inspired by the small snacks that are served alongside aperitivo drinks in Italy. In those golden hours between work and dinner, you can unwind with a spritz and some choice bites that will warm up your stomach for the meal that’s to come. This mini board is the perfect size for four people to share over a drink.

Serves 4

• 8 slices prosciutto di Parma
• 8 grissini
• 100g Parmesan
• 100g olives, drained
• 6 slices Milano salami
• 12 slices fennel salami
• 6 slices coppa or bresaola
• fresh basil sprigs, to garnish

1 Take 1 slice of prosciutto di Parma and wrap it around 1 grissini or breadstick. Repeat until you’ve used up the prosciutto. Use a cheese knife to break the Parmesan into bitesized chunks. Place a bowl for the olives on the board and spoon them in.

2 Arrange the prosciutto-wrapped grissini, the Parmesan, the salamis and the coppa/bresaola on the board. Garnish with fresh basil and serve.

Harvest home cheese & charcuterie board 

A fuss-free, pan-European board that’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. The cheeses are the big draw: four mild and creamy French varieties that are gorgeous served with fresh crusty bread, fig chutney and pickled pears. To go with the cheeses, there are two meats: the ever-popular chorizo and jambon de Bayonne. The remaining ingredients, including the sauerkraut, caper berries and grilled peppers, should be available in large supermarkets or delis.

Serves 6

• 100g half petit Brie de Meaux
• 150g each Saint Agur blue cheese, Port Salut and Sainte-Maure de Touraine goat’s cheese
• 400g sliced jambon de Bayonne
• 300g sliced chorizo
• 460g jar roasted peppers in olive oil, drained
• 250g pickled pears
• 125g sauerkraut, drained
• 250g fig chutney
• 90g wholegrain mustard
• 90g caper berries, drained
• 250g green olives, drained
• 190g jar cornichons, drained
• 100g almonds
• a few small bunches of grapes
• 1 medium sourdough loaf, sliced
• 1 baguette, sliced
• 54 wheat crackers
• nasturtium leaves, to garnish (optional)

1 Arrange the cheeses and meats on the board. Place bowls on the board and fill them with the peppers, pears, sauerkraut, chutney, mustard, caper berries and olives. Fill in the gaps with the remaining items.

2 Garnish with nasturtium leaves. Serve within 1 hour of assembling.

Holiday snack wreath

This is a fun way to serve canapés at festive get-togethers. The skewers look gorgeous yet are easy to put together: assemble them a few hours before the party, keep them covered and chilled, then remove from the fridge half an hour before you want to serve. This allows two skewers per person, and assumes you’ll be serving other nibbles. If you want to have an all-skewer party, allow three skewers per person per hour and mix and match the ingredients. A range of skewers – savoury charcuterie, fresh veggies, sweet fruit – will keep everyone interested.

Serves 4-8

• 2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 2cm squares
• 150g Taleggio, rind removed, cut into 10 equal-sized chunks
• 10 baby plum tomatoes
• 10 black olives, pitted
• 10 mozzarella bocconcini, drained
• 10 slices Napoli salami
• a few handfuls of curly kale
• fresh rosemary and basil sprigs, to garnish

1 Assemble the skewers, threading a piece of red pepper, a cube of Taleggio, a tomato, an olive, a bocconcino and a slice of salami on to each skewer. You don’t have to make the skewers uniform, so mix up the order in which you add ingredients to them.

2 Arrange a few handfuls of kale leaves in a doughnut shape on a serving board or plate. Nestle the skewers among the leaves, using the leaves as cups to support the skewers. Tuck in a few sprigs of rosemary and basil to garnish.

3 If your fridge is big enough, lightly cover the board with clingfilm or beeswax paper and chill for 3-4 hours. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving.

FLAVOUR SWAPS

This uses Italian ingredients, but you can pick your favourite flavours. Here are some ideas…

• Make it French Saucisson sec, jambon de Bayonne, Roquefort, Comté and cornichons.
• Make it Greek Feta, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives and grilled red onion wedges.
• Make it veggie Artichoke hearts, grilled peppers, basil, mozzarella and cherry tomatoes
• Make it vegan Marinated tofu, grilled tempeh, grilled aubergine and baby spinach leaves.

Rainbow fruit & veg board

An array of vegetable crudités, arranged by colour, looks spectacular on a grazing board, especially when served with vibrantly coloured dips. This board is best served soon after being arranged, so get ahead by preparing all your crudités and keeping them in containers in the fridge, ready to go on the board. You can make the dip up to 24 hours in advance, too. Then it’s simply a matter of heaping the veggies and chips on the board in brightly coloured piles and adding the dips. It should take around 15 minutes to assemble, but because the combination of colours has such impact, everyone will imagine you’ve worked on it for hours (the most satisfying hosting trick).

Serves 8

• 300g hummus
• 300g beetroot hummus
• 16 grissini
• 150g baked pitta chips
• 150g blue corn tortilla chips
• 1 cucumber
• 3 large carrots
• 6 sweet-bite peppers
• 300g mixed radishes
• 500g sugar-snap peas
• 125g baby plum tomatoes
• mustard cress, to garnish   

Avocado, Pea & Cannellini Bean Dip

• 200g frozen peas
• 1 medium avocado
• 400g tin cannellini beans
• 50g mature Cheddar, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1-2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Make the avocado, pea and cannellini bean dip. Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the peas. Simmer for 3 minutes to cook them through, then drain. Halve the avocado, scoop out the stone and peel away the skin. Roughly chop. Drain the cannellini beans, catching the liquid from the tin in a bowl.

2 Put the peas, avocado and beans in a food processor. Add the Cheddar, garlic and 1 tablespoon each lemon juice and olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Whiz until smoothly combined. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon juice or olive oil if it needs it. If it seems too chunky or stiff, add a few tablespoons of the liquid from the cannellini bean tin.

3 The dip will keep for up to 24 hours in a sealed container in the fridge. Cover the top of the dip with a thin layer of olive oil to help prevent it browning, and stir that in before serving.

4 When ready to serve, place three bowls on your grazing board and fill them with the dips. Arrange the grissini, pitta chips and tortilla chips on the board.

5 Trim and slice the cucumber into finger-length batons, Trim, peel and slice the carrots to match. Halve the peppers and scoop out the seeds and white pith. Trim and slice some of the radishes into rounds and slice others into flower shapes, if liked, leaving other radishes whole. Arrange all the veg on the board, strewing some mustard cress across it to garnish. Serve within 30 minutes of being assembled.

Chocolate fondue board

Desserts can sometimes be tricky, but never forget how good a simple chocolate sauce is – especially when it’s paired with fresh fruit for dipping. Using dark chocolate in the fondue adds bitterness to the dish, which helps balance out the fruit’s sweetness. But if dark chocolate is a little too rich for your guests, use a good milk chocolate spiced up with cinnamon. Or try making it with white chocolate flavoured with ground cardamom.

Serves 4

• 1 kiwi, sliced
• 1 apple, cored and sliced
• 1 banana, peeled and sliced
• 1 mango, peeled, stoned and cubed
• 100g strawberries
• 50g raspberries
• a small bunch of grapes
• fresh mint sprigs, to decorate

Salted chocolate sauce

• 100g dark chocolate (85% cocoa solids)
• a pinch of sea salt, plus extra if needed
• 200ml double cream
• 50g unsalted butter, chopped

1 Put a bowl on a board, then arrange the fruit around it and decorate with mint sprigs.

2 For the chocolate sauce, chop the chocolate into small pieces and put in a heatproof bowl. Add a pinch of salt. Pour the cream into a small pan and add the chopped butter. Gently warm for 2-3 minutes until the butter has melted and the cream is steaming hot. Pour the hot cream and butter into the bowl with the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and formed a smooth sauce. Taste the sauce and add a pinch more salt if you think it needs it.

3 Pour the sauce into the bowl and serve the board immediately.

NOW BUY THE BOOK

Our recipes are from Glorious Boards by Jassy Davis, which is published by HQ, £22. To order a copy for £18.70 until 17 December, go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937. Free UK delivery on orders over £25