Description
Brandon shares our favorite appetizer for date night in and dinner parties. So simple yet so amazingly delicious!
Ingredients
- 12 fresh whole dates
- 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt (do not use fat free, I prefer Fage 2%)
- olive oil, for drizzling
- flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Take your fresh dates and cut a small slit across the top from end to end. Lightly squeeze the date and pry out the seed with the knife.
- In a small bowl, mix together the mascarpone cheese and yogurt until well blended. (You can increase the amount of yogurt to up to 2 tablespoons if you like it more tart.)
- Place the yogurt-mascarpone filling in a piping bag or plastic baggie with a corner snipped and then pipe the filling into the center of each date.
- Preheat oven to 250°F. Put the filled dates in the refrigerator while the oven preheats.
- Once the oven has preheated, place the dates on a cookie sheet and bake on the middle rack of your oven for 10 minutes. Remove dates from the oven and cool for 1-2 minutes.
- Place the dates on your serving platter and then finish each one with a light drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Try to be generous with the salt as it really adds a nice complexity to the dish.
Notes
When you eat the date, flip it upside down and put the entire thing in your mouth. Similar to how sushi chefs recommend you eat nigiri sushi, when you eat the date this way the richness of the salt and olive oil hit your tongue first followed by the creamy cheese and then sweet date.
When serving as an appetizer, plan for 3 dates per person.