Recently my friend told me of this amazing pizza he had for lunch days ago. Other than his personal pie being well worth the New York price of twenty bucks he could not stop talking about the appealing combination of ingredients and mind blowing flavor. A rustic crisp crust with perfectly placed blackened spots given by the earthen oven that birthed it. Topped with warm tangy tomato sauce; coins of speckled sopressata; fresh mozzarella; chili oil made from dried crushed red pepper flakes and a drizzle of honey harvested from a bee farm in upstate New York. Yup, I said that too “what the fuck!” We, my friend and I raved and continuously agreed on how genius it was to combine crunchy, tart, salty, spicy and sweet to make a pizza.
You can imagine how eager I was to create a dish at home using the same flavor profile, but not having to spend much and be able to use ingredients found in my kitchen cabinets. Thanks to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday that opportunity came sooner than later. I did a test for an appetizer I’d like to serve to my friends: habanero cornbread, homemade tomato jam and prosciutto – The Rule of Three.
An easy to make and assemble recipe, I had all but 1 habanero and ½ pound of prosciutto which was not a hard or high priced buy to make twenty-four mini bites. The adapted cornbread recipe taken from food network’s website, adding 1 more tbsp. of sugar and habanero slices sautéed in the 6 tbsp. of melted butter.
I used miniature baking molds but you can use a loaf pan to bake the cornbread and cut into uniformed pieces to vehicle the piped-on tomato jam and prosciutto. Wholefoods makes a great cornbread though not spicy it can still be used. After topping with tomato jam, sprinkle pepper flakes then place a slice of prosciutto for the same great sweet/spicy/salty taste.
Enjoy!
