Bresaola parcels with cream cheese and chives

• 10 minutes to prepare • 15 minutes to cool • Serves 4

10 MINUTES 

 

I absolutely love bresaola and I absolutely love serving appetizers.

Bresaola is just one of those ingredients that’s begging to be used as a wrapper – not too overwhelming and very pliable!
It is air dried, salted beef that’s usually been hung/aged for a few months. It originally hails from north Lombardy, in Valtellina.
I wanted to pair the strong meat with something creamy but with a little bit of character and decided to go with two of my all time favourite combinations, cream cheese and chives. Creaminess with a bit of va va voom.

There are so many possibilities with this recipe, you could use the bresaola as a starting point and go with so many different fillings. But think about the balance of the final bite – you need to think about texture and flavour.
For that reason, I think a soft or semi soft cheese is preferable to anything hard.
Taste wise, I’ve paired bresaola with rocket salad before but with some caprino cheese as a buffer and it worked very well, so perhaps a little experimentation is called for, preferably without hungry guests hanging around!

Here are ingredients for the 4-serving recipe:

 

200 g bresaola cured beef cut into thin slices
200 g cream cheese
50 g chives
EVO oil
salt and pepper

1. Rinse under water chives, then drain them in a colander
2. Keep 10 of them aside. Chop the remaining ones and place them in a medium bowl together with cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of EVO oil, salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix well with a spoon until you get a homogenous creamy mixture
3. Lay out a bresaola slice on a plate or clean worktop
4. Place a small dollop of cream cheese on the bresaola. Use as much as you can without overfilling, because you need to be able to wrap it all up (half a teaspoon is a good start)
5. Bunch up the bresaola by bring the longer edges together, then the two shorter ends. Pinch gently with your fingers and the bresaola should pretty much stick together. Now tie with a chive
6. Place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes
7. When you are ready to eat, take the plate out of the fridge, enjoy!
   

Nutrition Facts are listed for this recipe in the table below. Data is provided per serving.