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Bocconcini of Mozzarella and Prosciutto
 
Leslie Borden, Oct 2002
Ciao, foodie friends,
Rob and I got back from our extended Italian trip last week, full of good food and ideas for trying to recreate it here. I say “trying to” because, as we know, ingredients are key, and Italian ingredients tend to be different from American ones. This is especially true in the area of fish and shellfish, where the Italian critters just don’t exist in, or are rarely imported to, the U.S. Nonetheless, I have hopes of putting together a nice plate of spaghetti with clams and a fish and shellfish soup. Watch this space for the results of my progress, as well as for pictures, as I’m working on Rob to scan them - the fish at the Rialto Market in Venice is truly a work of art.
In the meantime, here’s a nice little standing around nibble that I came up with after having a plated version of it in a lovely a little town near Sorrento, called Sant’ Agata sui Due Golfi (literally, St. Agata between the two gulfs, which are the Bay of Naples and the Bay of Salerno).
Buon appetito, and, of course,
See you around the (Italian) kitchen,

lb
These little cocktail bites (“bocconcini” means “little mouthfuls”) were inspired by an antipasto I had in the little town of Sant’ Agata sui Due Golfi. Sant’ Agata sits on the Sorrentine Peninsula, halfway between Sorrento and the incomparably vertical Amalfi Coast. The antipasto consisted of large chunks of the local version of fresh cows’ milk mozzarella, called treccia. It sat on a plate with a little arugula salad, covered with soft ruffles of prosciutto. With the addition of a drizzle of olive oil, it was a lovely appetizer. To adapt it as a standing around nibble, I put some of each element in each bite.
To serve 6 – 8 as a standing around nibble:
• 1 ball of fresh mozzarella, buffalo if you can get it, cows’ milk otherwise (absolutely not the ivory colored plastic that goes on pizza). If you go to the Arlington Farmers’ Market on Saturday between 8 and 12 or the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market on Sunday betwen 9 and 12, visit the guy from the Shenandoah Valley who makes buffalo mozzarella. Both his cows’ milk and his buffalo mozzarella are excellent.
• 4 – 5 slices of prosciutto (imported, trust me, it’s better). And see if you can get them not to cut off all the lovely creamy white fat. A little of it won’t kill you, and it’s really delicious.
• 4 – 5 leaves of arugula Get the variety with the small pointy leaves if you can, and you’ll need a few more of them. Another fine product to be had at the two farmers’ markets. And they sell theirs already washed.
• Drain and pat dry the mozzarella, then cut it into bite-sized chunks. Cut the prosciutto slices and arugula leaves into strips a little wider than the mozzarella chunks and about three times the length of the chunks. If the arugula has thick middle ribs, cut them away and discard.
• For each bocconcino, lay out a strip of the prosciutto and place a strip of the arugula on top of it. Place a chunk of the mozzarella at one end and then roll it up in the prosciutto-arugula layer. If you keep the prosciutto long enough, it’ll wrap around and stick to itself. That way, you don’t need the stupid little cocktail toothpicks that you always seem to step on the next morning when they get stuck in the rug.